Tennis: Petra Kvitova reaches first final since her hand was injured during knife attack

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova beat Lucie Safarova in the Aegon Classic semifinals on Saturday in Birmingham, England, to reach the first final since her playing hand was injured in a knife attack at her home.

This is Kvitova’s first grass-court final since her triumph at 2014 Wimbledon, though this significant achievement was tinged with anti-climax as Safarova quit with a right thigh strain after only eight games. Kvitova was leading 6-1, 1-0.

Nevertheless, Kvitova hit her groundstrokes with pace and accuracy, especially from the forehand side.

In the final, the Czech leftie will play Ashleigh Barty, an Australian who was impressive in containing former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Whatever happens, Kvitova was already delighted with her progress.

“The hand is good, which is the best news I could have,” she said. “I am not feeling any pain.”

Remarkably, she’s playing only her second tournament and only her sixth match since she was attacked in December.

Asked if the comeback had gone better than expected, she replied: “Yes. I could not have imagined a better comeback.” But she remained reluctant to agree that she was now one of the players who could win Wimbledon.

Cilic stops Muller’s winning streak

Marin Cilic ended Gilles Muller’s seven-match winning run on grass with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory to reach the final at Queen’s tournament in London.

The fourth-seeded Cilic will play Feliciano Lopez in Sunday’s title match at the Wimbledon warm-up event. Lopez gained a measure of revenge for his loss to Grigor Dimitrov in the 2014 final by beating the Bulgarian 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the second semifinal, which was delayed mid-match by rain.

Cilic recovered from having his serve broken for the first time in four matches this week — in the final game of the second set — to stay on course for a second Queen’s title. He also won it in 2012.

Muller, a tall left-hander with an accurate serve and a strong grass-court game, won on grass in the Netherlands last week and hadn’t been broken this week until he played Cilic.

Cilic, the highest remaining seed, sent a backhand down the line to clinch the sixth game of the match and the only break of the first set.

His serve was dominant until the final game of the second set, when he went 0-40 and was broken on the second set point.

It proved to be a momentary lapse, and Cilic converted his second match point when fired down a second-serve ace. Cilic, a former U.S. Open champion, is showing good form ahead of Wimbledon, where he has reached the quarterfinals in the past three years.

Federer back in Weber final

Roger Federer defeated Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-6 (5) to advance to the final of the Gerry Weber Open for the 11th time.

Chasing his ninth title at the grass-court tournament in Halle, Germany,, Federer was serving for the match when he was broken by the 21-year-old Russian. Khachanov then missed two set points before Federer took it to the tiebreaker.

“It was all a little uncertain because I don’t know him that well,” said Federer. “It’s warm, it’s hot, I’m a little bit tired. It was a difficult match.”

Federer saved four of the six break points he faced overall, while converting three of his five opportunities.

The 35-year-old Swiss will bid for his 92nd career title in what will be his 140th final against fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev, who rallied to beat Richard Gasquet 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 for his seventh title-decider.