Liudmila Samsonova maintained her outstanding run in the second half of the season to reach her third final of the year on Saturday by beating China’s Zhang Shuai 7-6(4) 6-2 at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
It was the 17th victory in her last 18 matches for the 23-year-old Russian who will face another Chinese in Zheng Qinwen for her fourth career WTA title in Sunday’s championship clash.
The 19-year-old Zheng rallied after one set to edge past Russian fourth seed Veronika Kudermetova 5-7 6-3 7-6(3) in the second semi-final of the day and advance to her opener. Tour-level championship at the WTA 500 event.
Zheng, who made her Grand Slam debut at the 2022 Australian Open, started the year ranked 126th but steadily climbed the ranks to a career-best 36th in her breakthrough season.
Zheng’s victory, which lasted more than three hours over 13th-placed Kudermetova, was her fifth career win against a WTA top-20 player and all of them came in the 2022 season.
Zheng’s opponent on Sunday, Samsonova, is yet to lose a final and is 3-0 in league matches. She slammed 13 aces in her winning 40 to defeat Zhang.
The Russian, ranked 30th in the world, won back-to-back titles in Washington and Cleveland and her only loss since July came to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the fourth round of the US Open.