GUANGZHOU, China - Chanelle Scheepers' career-best week at the WANLIMA Guangzhou International Women's Open got even better with a three-hour, 23-minute semifinal upset of No.1 seed Maria Kirilenko on Friday.

Scheepers had not been beyond a quarterfinal prior to this week but now will vie for the title after rallying from a 4-1 deficit in the third set of her 75 57 64 triumph, the ninth-longest main draw match of the year so far.

"At 4-1, I just tried to make every point as hard as possible for her," said Scheepers, now 2-2 all-time against Kirilenko. "I was just trying to keep her out there as long as possible and if she wanted the match, she was going to have to win it. I just kept on fighting and she started missing some balls, and all of a sudden it was 5-4, then I served it out for 6-4." 

Scheepers is no stranger to thrillers in Guangzhou, having been extended to three sets in all four of her matches this week, including her second round win over Hsieh Su-Wei in which she had a match point against her in the second set and her quarterfinal win over Urszula Radwanska in which she was two points from defeat several times in the second set.

"It doesn't matter what round I'm in, I'm going to prepare for each match exactly the same, whether it's a final or a first round," said Scheepers, who will surpass her career-high ranking of No.65 regardless of her result in the final. "Yesterday I also played a really long match and I finished pretty late, so for me, it was all about getting ready for today. I got a massage. I had treatment. I got lots of food to eat. Tonight, it will be exactly the same."

The seventh-seeded Scheepers' opponent on Saturday will be eighth-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova. Although her victory wasn't quite as dramatic as Scheepers', Rybarikova did come back from 4-2 down in the first set of her 75 63 defeat of Zheng Jie.

In her only previous match-up with Zheng, Rybarikova was triumphant in the third round of Birmingham in 2009 en route to her first career title. Interestingly enough, her second round victim that week was Scheepers - their only previous encounter. Rybarikova is going for her third career title, as in addition to Birmingham, she won Memphis earlier this year.

Saturday's doubles final will feature two unseeded duos - Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan against Hsieh Su-Wei and Zheng Saisai.