Safarova advances

Fourth-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic held off lucky-loser Lesia Tsurenko of the Ukraine 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) on Friday in the Connecticut Open semifinals at New Haven. Second-seeded defending champion Petra Kvitova, also from the Czech Republic, faced third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the second semifinal. Safarova, from the Czech Republic, had a 4-1 leads in the second before Tsurenko rallies. “I started to rush a little bit and I was not really concentrating in the moment,” Safarova said. “She started pressing me and the whole momentum started to shift.” Safarova took a 5-4 lead, but Tsurenko, who replaced top-seeded Simona Halep in the field after losing in qualifying, staved off elimination and took a 6-5 lead.

French qualifier Pierre-Hughes Herbert advanced to the Winston-Salem Open final, beating 13th-seeded Steve Johnson of the U.S. 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Friday in the North Carolina tournament. Herbert, ranked 140th, will play second-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa or Malek Jaziri of Tunisia today in the championship match at the Wake Forest Tennis Center. Herbert will play his ninth match in eight days. He won three qualifying matches to make the main draw, then won five more to advance to his first ATP World Tour final. Johnson, ranked 49th, broke Herbert’s serve once and won 92 percent of his first serves in the first set, and broke him again to open the second set. But Herbert broke Johnson’s serve in the sixth game to force the tiebreaker, then won six of the last nine points in the tiebreaker to take the set.