By Tennis Now | Friday, May 4, 2018

Mihaela Buzarnescu celebrated the big Three-Oh with a huge three-set win.

Buzarnescu celebrated her 30th birthday battling past Camilia Giorgi, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, into the Prague final.

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Facing a 4-5 deficit in the decider, a determined Buzarnescu reeled off the final three games, breaking Giorgi twice in a row.

The seventh-seeded Romanian exploited eight double faults from Giorgi and broke the 58th-ranked Italian in the final game advancing to her second final of the season.

Buzarnescu celebrated her birthday with a strong dose of self-belief, breaking Giorgi when she served for the final at 5-4 to spark her comeback.

"She's such a powerful player, it's so hard to play against her because she takes the ball so fast and she is so fast, so it was a really hard match," Buzarnescu told Prague fans in her on-court interview afterward. "I was so happy I was able to win. It's a lot of stress, because I have my birthday today. At 4-5 in the final set, I said to myself, 'Come on, you can do it.' I never stopped believing."

The victory vaults Buzarnescu into tomorrow's all-lefty final against Petra Kvitova.

It will be Buzarnescu's third meeting with a left-handed oppponent this week, following victories over Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia and 2017 finalist Kristyna Pliskova.  

The second-seeded Kvitova thrilled home fans defeating Shuai Zhang, 7-6 (6), 6-0, to roar into her third final of the season.

Kvitova cranked seven aces, won 83 percent of her first-serve points and did not face a break point.

The 10th-ranked Czech has not dropped serve in her last three matches.

The two-time Wimbledon winner is playing for her 23rd career title and first on home soil. Kvitova is undefeated in finals this season, sweeping successive championships in St. Petersburg and Doha.

Buzarnescu, who opened the season reaching her first Tour-level final in Hobart, has been revitalized in Prague.



The Romanian arrived in Prague having lost five of her last six matches. Buzarnescu had not won back-to-back matches since February when she defeated Lesia Tsurenko and reigning Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in succession.

Hitting with accuracy, Buzarnescu won 12 of the final 16 points to cross the finish line. She has dropped just one set in four tournament victories this week.

"I cried before the match as I got too emotional," Buzarnescu said after her two hour, 25-minute triumph. "Because she's playing fast, and the game was fast, it could have been even longer, but I can feel it in my body that it was long."