World number 7 Zheng Qinwen beat Diana Schnaider 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to reach her second consecutive WTA Tour final at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
Zheng Qinwen won her first title of the season at the Ladies Open in Palermo before claiming the Olympic gold medal. She then reached the US Open quarter finals, her first WTA 1000 semifinal in Beijing and her first WTA 1000 final in Wuhan. She has won 27 of her last 31 matches since Wimbledon.
Zheng raced out to a 4-0 lead with two breaks of serve before Schnaider pulled back one break breaks for 3-4. Zheng held serve at 30 to take a 5-3 lead but she was not able to serve the first set. Schnaider saved four set points.
Schnaider and Zheng and Schnaider traded mini-breaks on the seventh and eighth points and stayed neck and neck in the tie-break until Zheng earned her fifth set point. The Chinese player hit an unreturnable serve to seal the tie-break after 69 minutes.
Schnaider went up an early break in the third game of the second set to take a 2-1 lead, but Zheng broke straight back to draw level to 2-2. Zheng earned a second break in the sixth game and held serve at 15. The Olympic champion served out on her first match point in the ninth game to achieve her 47th win of the year after 1 hour and 49 minutes.
The Chinese player will chase her third title of the season in the final against 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who beat Katie Boulter 6-4 6-4. Kenin has achieved her third win over a top 10 seed beating Wang Xinyu and Daria Kasatkina. Kenin broke twice in the fifth and seventh games to take a 5-2 lead. Boulter pulled one break back in the eighth game and saved three set points in the ninth game a she was serving to stay in the set. Kenin served out the opening set with a hold at 15 in the next game. Kenin converted her third break point and consolidated the break with a hold at 15 for 5-3 and served out the win on her first match point in the 10th game.
“Katie has been having a great year and she is a big and powerful player. I tried to off-set it. I did a great job. Definitely this week means a lot, going where I have been coming from this past year”, said Kenin.
