A successful week on home soil continued for Zheng Qinwen on Saturday, as the Chinese No.1 ousted Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-3 to reach the Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open final.
World No.24 Zheng moved into her third career singles final -- and first in her home country -- with the 75-minute victory over 31st-ranked Paolini at the WTA 500 event.
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Zheng will have her first career meeting with No.7 seed Barbora Krejcikova in Sunday's final. In the day's second semifinal, 2021 Roland Garros champion Krejcikova bested No.8 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-0 in a clash between Top 20 players.
"What I’m going to do is just prepare mentally, and be ready for a tough match, and just focus on the present," Zheng said, looking ahead to the final.
Zheng's repeat victory: Zheng had already defeated Paolini once this season, which was on the Italian’s home soil in the Palermo final. That victory was a huge occasion for Zheng, who captured her first Hologic WTA Tour singles title on that day.
By beating Paolini again, the 21-year-old Zheng is now a win away from her second career title. Zheng, last season's WTA Newcomer of the Year, finished the match with 19 winners to Paolini's seven, and she converted six of her 10 break points.
Zheng romped through the opening set without facing a break point. However, Paolini was more imposing on return in the second set, where she broke Zheng twice, including when the Chinese player served for the match at 5-2.
Nevertheless, Zheng regrouped in the following game, chasing down a drop shot and finishing with a winning putaway to line up triple match point. On Zheng's second match point, Paolini double faulted to cede victory to the homeland hope.
Krejcikova cruises in the end: After a close start to the second semifinal, Krejcikova dominated in the latter stages of the match, reeling off the last nine games to improve to 3-1 against Kasatkina.
"I think every single match [this week] gave me a little bit of confidence," Krejcikova said afterwards. "It’s a really nice reward to be in the final, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow."
The second game of Saturday's showdown took 18 minutes, as Kasatkina survived 12 deuces and saved six break points just to hold for 1-1. After missing that plethora of chances, Krejcikova dropped serve in the next game, putting Kasatkina up an early break.
However, Krejcikova quickly got back on level footing, as Kasatkina lost serve in the following game with a double fault on break point. Another Kasatkina double fault down break point handed Krejcikova a 5-3 lead, and the Czech volleyed her way to a love hold to take the first set.
From there, it was all Krejcikova, who lost only nine points in the second set. Krejcikova closed out the 90-minute win with an unreturnable serve, and she finds herself one victory away from her third title of 2023, after hoisting trophies in Dubai and San Diego this year.
