EASTBOURNE, England – Karolina Pliskova is back into another English grass court final after coming back from a set down against Eastbourne resident Johanna Konta, ending the Brit’s hopes of reaching her first WTA final on home soil at the Aegon International.

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Two weeks ago in Nottingham, Pliskova rallied through rain delays to claim her fifth WTA title at the Aegon Open Nottingham. As the same pattern emerged in the seaside town of Eastbourne — where she once again had to play two matches on the same day — the No.17 Czech knew how to prepare.

“I’m just thinking I’m happy to be in the final tomorrow,” Pliskova said. “I’m thinking today, just stay focused and take one match at a time. And rest as much as possible between.”

Pliskova faced a monumental task against home favorite Konta. Though she trains in Spain, the British No.1 calls Eastbourne home, and all week long she enjoyed vocal support from the Devonshire Park crowd who wanted to see a local lift the trophy in her hometown.

“I tried to concentrate on my game and not about the people,” Pliskova acknowledged. “Of course they’re gonna support her. She’s the only one British here in the draw left, and it’s their British No. 1, yeah?”

“I don’t feel like it had any influence on me.”

Konta was well on her way to the final after coming away the winner of a deadlocked first set. Neither player faced a break point and punctuated their strong baseline game with skillful forays to the net, sending the opening set to a tiebreak. Despite Pliskova digging herself out of a 5-2 hole, it wasn’t enough to escape the on-form Konta, who floated a dropshot just out of Pliskova’s long reach to take the set 7-6(5).

Pliskova drew blood early in the second set, grabbing the first break of serve of the match to go up 3-1. Konta looked set to break right back – she climbed to a 0-40 lead – but took a tumble in the middle of the point. Though she wasn’t injured and didn’t call a trainer, the fall seemed to leave her rattled as Pliskova erased the break points to hold her serve.

“It was quite an aggressive fall the way it happened,” Konta said afterward. “It just — yeah, it rattled me a bit. It was a bit of a shock, nothing major happened. I just tend to cry when I get shocked.”

Konta appeared more composed toward the end of the set, but she just couldn’t recover in time and Pliskova took the second set 6-3.

The Czech started the final set with a double break, quickly climbing to a 3-0 lead. Despite Konta grabbing one of the breaks back, Pliskova held her lead and downed the Brit 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 to reach her second WTA final of the year.

Pliskova is up against Dominika Cibulkova in the final of the Aegon International, after the Slovak cruised against Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig.

#SAPStatOfTheDay: @KaPliskova has hit a #WTA-leading 310 aces in 2016! Third straight season hitting 300+ aces!! pic.twitter.com/VJbw17peS3

— WTA (@WTA) June 24, 2016