Tennis: Wozniacki ousts Pliskova to reach Miami final

MIAMI: Caroline Wozniacki booked her place in the final of the WTA Miami Open by rallying to defeat Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 on Thursday.

The Dane, who has never appeared in the Miami final, will play the winner of Thursday's later semi-final between a resurgent Venus Williams of the United States and Britain's Johanna Konta.

Pliskova, who has won titles this year at Doha and Brisbane, also fell at the semi-final stage in Indian Wells two weeks ago but started the early afternoon contest in positive fashion.

The Czech broke Wozniacki in the first game of the match but the Dane fought back and at 5-4 had three set points, which Pliskova manage to deny her.

Wozniacki then double faulted to give the Czech a break point, which she took before serving out for the set.

But former world number one Wozniacki, grinding down Pliskova with her solid defense, ran out a comfortable winner in the following two sets to earn a third final appearance of the year.

In February, Wozniacki was beaten by Pliskova in the Doha final and by Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in Dubai.