Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni advanced to her first WTA final since 1998 by defeating German fifth seed Julia Goerges 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 Saturday at the Quebec City tournament.
The 32-year-old former teen star won her only two WTA titles on home soil at the 1997 and 1998 Croatian Opens, beating American Corina Morariu in each final.
Lucic-Baroni will play in Sunday’s final against the winner of a later semi-final between US top seed Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, and American fourth seed Shelby Rogers.
After three years spent mostly away from the tour, Lucic-Baroni returned in 2007 and has shown her best from in more than a decade in recent weeks.
She reached the fourth round at the US Open, a Grand Slam run she only bettered with a trip to the 1999 Wimbledon semi-finals.
Firing nine aces and seven double faults, Lucic-Baroni was broken in the final game of the second set by Goerges but won five of the next six games to seize command on her way to victory after two hours and 23 minutes.
Goerges was also seeking her third career title after wins in 2010 at Bad Gastein and 2011 at Stuttgart.
Williams, ranked 19th and coming off a third-round exit at the US Open, seeks her 46th career WTA title and second of the year after taking the trophy at Dubai.