NEW HAVEN (Connecticut), Aug 25: Second-seeded Petra Kvitova will face Maria Kirilenko in the New Haven Open final after four-time defending champion Caroline Wozniacki pulled out with a knee injury on Friday, ending her remarkable sequence of victories.

Wozniacki hurt her right knee in a quarter-final victory over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova on Thursday. She had lost the first set to Kirilenko 7-5 when she called for the trainer.

“It’s definitely not the way I would have liked to have finished,” said Wozniacki, who was trying to join Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Chris Evert as the only players to win five straight titles at the same WTA event.

“Unfortunately my run for a 5th straight title here in New Haven came to an end,” Wozniacki said on Twitter. “Some treatment and ice and I should be all good for the open next week!”

Czech Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, breezed past fourth-seeded Italian Sara Errani 6-1, 6-3.

ISNER TO FACE BERDYCH IN FINAL

WINSTON-SALEM (North Carolina): Defending champion John Isner advanced to the Winston-Salem Open final by beating France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) on Friday.

Isner, seeded third in the US Open tune-up event, will face second-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych in Saturday’s final after he defeated seventh-seeded American Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-3 in the other semi-final.

VINCI WINS TEXAS OPEN

DALLAS (Texas): Third-seeded Roberta Vinci won the Texas Open on Friday, beating second-seeded Jelena Jankovic 7-5, 6-3 in the US Open tune-up event.

Italian Vinci has seven career WTA Tour singles titles, four of them in the past year while Serbia’s Jankovic has not won a singles title since 2010 at Indian Wells.—Agencies

Opinion

Editorial

Sustainable path?
13 Jun, 2026

Sustainable path?

THE FY27 budget is the first clear signal that the government is ready to transition from stabilisation to growth ...
Prioritising education
13 Jun, 2026

Prioritising education

THOUGH the improvement in the country’s literacy rate may be slight, as highlighted by the Economic Survey, it ...
Poverty’s rise
13 Jun, 2026

Poverty’s rise

AS attention turns to the government’s plans for the coming fiscal year, one set of figures deserves particular...
A difficult story
Updated 12 Jun, 2026

A difficult story

Unless productivity becomes the dominant target of economic policy, Pakistan will continue to oscillate between crises and fragile recovery.
Rough waters
12 Jun, 2026

Rough waters

AMONGST the key potential triggers for fresh conflict in South Asia is water. The Indian state is behaving in an...
Politicised football
12 Jun, 2026

Politicised football

ALMOST three-and-half years since Lionel Messi led Argentina to FIFA World Cup glory, the latest edition of...