Alison Riske Advances to 13th Final on Grass of Nottingham

Reflecting during the day’s darkest hour helped Alison Riske realize energizing light.

Riske broke three times in the decisive set defeating Viktoria Golubic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to charge into her 13th career final at the Nottingham Open.

The sixth-seeded Riske battled into her second Nottingham final. Riske was runner-up to Karolina Pliskova in the 2016 Nottingham Open final.

The 2019 Wimbledon quarterfinalist played timely flat strikes down the lines breaking Golubic in the final game to seal a trip to her third career grass-court final.

“Today was such a war,” Riske said in her on-court interview. “Honestly, I’m really proud that I was able to come back in the third after the break and gather myself and start fresh.

“Viktorija is absolutely brutal to play out here. She’s playing really, really well so I’m just very proud of the way I was able to fight back.”

Rain suspended play for about an hour at the start of the final set. Riske used that time to re-energize and amp up her intensity for the final run.

“In the moment [the rain delay] really didn’t feel it was helping me because I was in a very bad place, but I think in hindsight I was able to gather my thoughts my coach was able to tell me what I needed to focus on and I just really needed to up the energy,” Riske said. “Because I was really low on energy, so I tried to overdo it a little bit and just get myself going a little bit.

“That’s because of how well Viktorija was playing. She took me out of my game for a period there. It was just very challenging. So again I’m just very grateful to be through. Thank you everyone who was here supporting us. I know we both laid it all out there and something I hope everyone enjoyed.”

The victory vaults Riske into tomorrow’ final against Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia.

The seventh-seeded Haddad Maia held a 6-3, 4-1 lead over Tereza Martincova when the Czech was forced to pull the plug due to a right knee injury.

The 48th-ranked Haddad Maia advanced to her first WTA singles final since the 2017 Seoul where she extended former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko to three sets.