Eugenie Bouchard defeated French Open runner-up Simona Halep 7-6 (5), 6-2 Thursday to advance to the Wimbledon final against 2011 champion Petra Kvitova.
Bouchard, who has not dropped a set in six matches, won on her sixth match point to reach her first Grand Slam final. She lost in the semifinals at this year's two previous majors, the Australian Open and French Open.
In a semifinal that was delayed twice in the first set - first by a left ankle injury to Halep, and then when a woman spectator fell ill during the tiebreaker — Halep double-faulted on break point in the second set and then was broken again by Bouchard to give the Canadian a 4-1 lead.
Earlier, Kvitova beat fellow Czech left-hander lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 6-1.
No. 3-seeded Halep, who saved three match points in the seventh game and two more in more in the final game, appeared to be increasingly affected by her ankle injury and looked down at her feet several times after hitting shots. On Bouchard's first match point, Halep hit an ace, but Bouchard did not appear ready to receive, and she went to speak with chair umpire Kader Nouni. But the point stood and Bouchard failed to clinch the match.
The tiebreaker was delayed briefly when the female spectator became ill. With Halep leading 3-2 in the tiebreaker, Nouni jumped from his chair to alert security officials to the woman's illness and told both players to go to their sideline chairs.
The first Canadian woman to reach Wimbledon's semifinals, Bouchard is the youngest player ranked in the top 20 — and will move into the top 10 on Monday. She is only the sixth woman since 2000 to get to at least the semis at a season's first three majors, joining Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Dinara Safina.
In the first semifinal, Kvitova, the only player born in the 1990s to have won a major title — here in 2011 — improved her record to 25-5 on the Wimbledon grass. She's made at least the quarterfinals five years in a row. 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.