Aryna Sabalenka continued her Wuhan Open dominance with a first straight-sets victory over Elena Rybakina.
Sabalenka and Rybakina were meeting for the 13th time, with the world number one leading 7-5 going into the clash, but all her previous wins had gone the distance.
The time Sabalenka, who extended her remarkable record in the Chinese city to 20 victories and no losses, put that right, claiming a 6-3 6-3 triumph and dealing a major blow to Rybakina’s hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals.
With victory, Sabalenka reached her 11th semi-final from 15 tournaments this season, and she said: “That sounds crazy. I never thought that I’d be able to achieve something like that.
“I’ll keep focusing and keep improving my game and see how far I can get. We have a really huge history and always tough battles. I always enjoy playing her, she always pushes me to the next level.
“I think today I put so much pressure on her serve and I was serving quite well. Overall I think it was a very high level match and I’m super happy with the win.”
Next up Sabalenka will face sixth seed Jessica Pegula, who once again needed three sets to come through, beating Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova 2-6 6-0 6-3.
Coco Gauff is on a confidence-boosting run after her serving struggles and is also through to the last four, although she hit six more double faults in a 6-3 6-0 victory over German veteran Laura Siegemund.
Next the American will face seventh seed Jasmine Paolini, who defeated Iga Swiatek for the first time in seven attempts for the loss of only three games.
Paolini had only won one set against Swiatek in all their previous encounters but the Italian got off to a flying start and did not look back, needing just 66 minutes to clinch a 6-1 6-2 victory.
