By Adrianna Outlaw | Saturday, June 20, 2015

 

Karolina Pliskova powered past Kristina Mladenovic, 6-2, 7-6 (6) to reach her fourth final of 2015 in Birmingham.

Photo credit: Christopher Levy

Karolina Pliskova refused to let the elements or seed killer Kristina Mladenovic deny her a trip to her first grass-court final.

Pliskova stared down triple set point in the tie break and answered with five-point spree, surging into the Birmingham final with a 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory in a match interrupted a few times by showers.

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It is the fourth final of the year for the 23-year-old Czech, who stumbled through a miserable spring clay season — she was a first-round casualty in Rome and failed to survive the second round in Madrid or Paris — but has found the lawn much more receptive to her power-based baseline game.

Pliskova will face the winner of the all-German semifinal between No. 4 seed Angelique Keber and eighth-seeded Sabine Lisicki in Sunday's final.

The 43rd-ranked Mladenovic surprised 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard in the second round, stopped 10th-seeded Barbora Strycova in the round of 16 and edged top-seeded Simona Halep , 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (4), in the quarterfinals.

Pliskova overpowered Mladenovic on serve at the outset, winning 13 of 14 points played on her first serve in the opener.

The sixth-seeded Czech anticipated the wide served and whipped a forehand return winner down the line, breaking for a 4-1 first set lead. Pliskova served out the first set without a stress test.

Mladenovic earned the first mini break of the tie break and seemed to be in charge when she held triple set point at 6-3 in the breaker. But Pliskova pounded a backhand winner down the line to save the first set point, then quickly erased the next two in succession.

Correctly reading the wide serve again, Pliskova was off the doubles alley when she drilled a forehand return winner down the line for match point. She closed with another blast — Pliskova finished with six aces against no double faults — winning five straight points to wrap up a one hour, 21-minute victory.

Four Top 10 players began the week of play in Birmingham — Halep, Ana Ivanovic, Carla Suarez Navarro and Kerber. If 2011 champion Lisicki defeats the 10th-ranked Kerber in today's second semifinal, then Pliskova is projected to crack the Top 10 when the new WTA rankings are released Monday.