Nadia Petrova took advantage of her last-minute addition to the field at the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament, moving into the final with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Maria Kirilenko Friday. Kirilenko broke Petrova twice in the first set, but said she felt a pain in her back after lunging for a ball. She took a medical timeout in the second set but continued to struggle with her movement. “I made a very fast movement and then I start to feel it even more,” she said. “Then I couldn't even bend at all. Then it went a little bit better when the (trainer) came out. But still I decided to continue because no reason, you know, just even if you have a pain, you have to try.” Kirilenko said she would have the back looked at before deciding her status for the US Open. Petrova, who had 33 unforced errors in the first set, found her serve in the second and cruised to the victory. “I saw she had difficulties moving,” Petrova said. “So that was my first goal, keep her on the run, make her stretch, use my serve as a weapon, try to win as many free shots as possible. Then put pressure on her serve, try to be a little bit more aggressive so she has to come up with the amazing shot.” Petrova received the final wild-card entry to the tournament after Ana Ivanovic withdrew last week with an ankle injury. She called the opportunity to play a “great gift” and has turned it into her first finals appearance since 2008. “Has it been that long ago?” she said. “I've played a decent tennis throughout those years. I've had good wins. But just maybe I was a little bit out of luck.” She will play either top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki or No. 4-seeded Elena Dementieva Saturday. In the men's draw, Sergiy Stakhovsky moved into the final with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands. The ninth-seeded Ukrainian took advantage of the only break point in the first set and broke De Bakker again in the seventh game of the second set. Stakhovsky will play the winner of the second men's semifinal between Viktor Troicki of Serbia and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. Stakhovsky downed top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (4) Thursday. De Bakker beat Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan, 6-4, 6-2. Troicki beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3, while Istomin needed three sets to get by Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-1, 3-6, 7
