Birmingham final appearance ensures Barbora Krejcikova returns to top 10
The Czech top seed defeated Zhu Lin and will face Jelena Ostapenko for the trophy.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova will return to the top 10 after reaching her first grass-court final at the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham.
The Czech claimed her maiden singles grand slam title in 2021 but missed a chunk of last season with an elbow injury and dropped down the rankings.
Now the 27-year-old is back on the up and she is yet to drop a set so far at Edgbaston Priory, easing to a 6-3 6-2 victory over China’s Zhu Lin in the semi-finals.
Krejcikova said: “I’m really happy. Today was another difficult match, I felt it was really tough to play against my opponent today, so I’m really happy how I went through and I was really focused all the games.
“I played well. It’s really nice that I’m back (in the top 10) but it’s just a number, I want to keep going.”
It will be a battle of the top two seeds in the final, but second seed Jelena Ostapenko has had a contrasting path.
The powerful Latvian survived her third close three-setter in as many days, seeing off Russian Anastasia Potapova 5-7 6-2 6-4.
“Honestly I don’t know how I did it,” said Ostapenko. “Every match was a really tough match. It’s never easy and I always play a little bit up and down but in general I’m really happy.
“I think it’s important to win these kind of matches when you’re sometimes not playing your best and you just fight for every point. I will try to recover as good as I can and be ready for tomorrow.”