Eugenie Bouchard will face Petra Kvitova at the Wimbledon finals Saturday after beating the Romanian Simona Halep 7-6 (5) and 6-2 Thursday morning.
Bouchard broke serve twice in the second set to cruise to the victory after after a hard-fought first set.
After the victory, the unflappable Bouchard confessed that she felt some nerves near the end, when she missed a chance at a match-ending break and then needed a few match points to close it out on serve, after six match points and 94 minutes of play.
"It was a little crazy I've never ended a match like that. I’m just happy I kept my focus," she said in an interview with a BBC TV reporter immediately following the match.
The two rivals were neck-and-neck early on as they swapped breaks in the third and fourth games of the first set which were followed by a medical break as trainers taped Halep's left ankle, which she injured in the final point of hte fourth game running to her backhand.
But Halep appeared fully mobile as she returned to the court and both continued to hold, although Bouchard squandered two break chances in the eighth game.
Both servers failed to hold on serve for the first five points of the tiebreaker but Bouchard came from behind to reel off four straight points to help take the decider.
Bouchard will face the sixth-ranked Petra Kvitova, who won the tournament in 2011 and advanced Thursday by beating 23rd ranked Lucie Safarova 7-6, 6-1 earlier Thursday.
Bouchard felled Daniel Hantuchova, Andrea Petkovic, Alize Cornet and Angelique Kerber and now Halep on her road to the finals.
It was third time lucky for Bouchard -- she had lost both previous semifinals in Grand Slam tournaments this year.
"After doing well in the past few Slams, I've been believing since the beginning of the tournament that I can do really well," she said. "I'm just trying to take it one match at a time. It's really important not to get ahead of ourselves.
"I totally feel like I belong, and I'm just so excited for the next match."
Bouchard has not dropped a set in six matches so far at Wimbledon.
"It's not like a surprise to me -- I expect good results like this," she said. "So for me, I was like, 'OK good. It's a step in the right direction.' I get to play in the final and I still have another match so it's not a full celebration yet."
Kvitova is the only player born in the 1990s to have won a major title, taking the crown at the All England Club in 2011. She improved her record to 25-5 on the Wimbledon grass and she's made at least the quarter-finals five years in a row.
"I know how (it feels) when you hold the trophy so I really want to win my second title here and I will do everything I can," Kvitova said.
Bouchard, from Westmount, Que., is the only woman to have advanced to all three Grand Slam semifinals this year. The 2012 Wimbledon junior champion said she's proud to be the first Canadian to make it this far in the tournament.
"It's always exciting and special when I can make history," she said. "My job is not done, I want to go another step further. So I'm going to stay focused and enjoy it after."
The early match was the first Grand Slam semifinal between two Czech women. It marked No. 6-seeded Kvitova's 15th consecutive win against a left-hander and she beat 23rd-seeded Safarova -- who was playing on Centre Court for the first time -- for the sixth match in a row.
"I don't have words to describe my feeling right now," Kvitova said. "It was a tough match mentally, as well, because Lucie is a good friend of mine. We know each (other) very well off the court and on the court, as well."
Another Canadian is in the final four of the men's draw. Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will take on Switzerland's Roger Federer in semifinal play Friday.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
