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Birmingham, England • Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova beat Lucie Safarova in the Aegon Classic semifinals on Saturday to reach the first final since her playing hand was injured in a knife attack at her home.

This is Kvitova's first grass-court final since her triumph at 2014 Wimbledon, though this significant achievement was tinged with anti-climax as Safarova quit with a right thigh strain after only eight games. Kvitova was leading 6-1, 1-0.

Nevertheless, Kvitova hit her groundstrokes with pace and accuracy, especially from the forehand side.

In the final, the Czech leftie will play Ashleigh Barty, an Australian who was impressive in containing former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Whatever happens, Kvitova was already delighted with her progress.

"The hand is good, which is the best news I could have," she said. "I am not feeling any pain."

Remarkably, she's playing only her second tournament and only her sixth match since she was attacked in December.

Asked if the comeback had gone better than expected, she replied: "Yes. I could not have imagined a better comeback." But she remained reluctant to agree that she was now one of the players who could win Wimbledon.

Her win had a hint of inevitability from the start, for she had prevailed in all nine previous encounters against Safarova, a former world No. 5. Kvitova captured 14 of the first 15 points, and the first five games.

After losing her service game at the start of the second set, Safarova shook hands and departed. She had been suffering from exhaustion as well as a thigh strain, having played two monster matches in her previous three wins.

"I am sorry for Lucie and hope she soon gets a bit better, but I love playing finals," Kvitova said. "I like big matches, and I've missed it over the last six months. So this is quite a dream."

She will go for her 20th career title in her 27th final.

Barty was ranked at 271 at the start of the year, won her first career title in March in Kuala Lumpur, and has become the first Aussie finalist here in 25 years.

From the moment she broke serve for 3-2 and consolidated for 4-2 in the second set, it was clear Barty had a formula which had a good chance of working.

She sliced the ball hard, kept it wide and low, and denied Muguruza chances to develop pace and rhythm with her elegant groundstrokes. Given a glimmer of a chance to counterattack with rolling forehands, Barty always took it, and more often than not hit her targets.

Muguruza called for her coach, sought to swing the ball around, and eventually just tried to scrap as best she could. But Barty gained adrenaline and self-belief from her second set success, and five games in a row from 0-1 in the final set effectively decided the outcome.

"I will keep playing this way and I know that sooner or later I will get the chance of getting another trophy," said Muguruza, for whom this tournament has been mental rehab after her title-losing trauma in Paris two weeks ago.

Barty was ebullient. "I executed exactly the way I wanted to," she said. "I like slicing it around on the grass, and I didn't do much wrong."

Federer beats Khachanov to advance to his 11th Halle final

Halle, Germany • Roger Federer defeated Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-6 (5) to advance to the final of the Gerry Weber Open for the 11th time on Saturday.

Federer will bid for his 92nd career title in what will be his 140th final against the fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev, who rallied to beat Richard Gasquet 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 for his seventh title-decider.

Zverev, Germany's top-ranked player at No. 12, fired 11 aces and converted four of eight break opportunities to win in under two hours. Zverev will be going for his fourth title of the season on Sunday.

Chasing his ninth title at the grass-court tournament, Federer was serving for the match when he was broken by Khachanov. The Russian then missed two set points before Federer took it to the tiebreaker.

"It was all a little uncertain because I don't know him that well," said Federer, who rued uncharacteristic unforced errors. "It's warm, it's hot, I'm a little bit tired. It was a difficult match."

Federer saved four of the six break points he faced overall, while converting three of his five opportunities.

Federer had a busy start to the year including the capture of his 18th Grand Slam at the Australian Open. His decision to skip the clay-court season to recuperate appears to be paying off with a view to Wimbledon, where he is a seven-time champion.

"Everything has been geared toward that for the past 12 months and I'm happy with how I feel at the moment," Federer said before his match with Khachanov.