WUHAN, China — Former champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic overpowered fourth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania 6-1, 6-2 Friday to advance to the final of the Wuhan Open.
Kvitova hit four aces and saved all three break points she faced to set up a final with Dominika Cibulkova. Cibulkova outlasted Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Kvitova, who ousted reigning No. 1 Angelique Kerber in the third round, will be bidding for her first title of the year in Saturday's final. She won the inaugural Wuhan Open in 2014.
Cibulkova is seeking her third title of the year following wins in Eastbourne and Katowice.
In reaching her fifth final of the season, Cibulkova guaranteed herself a return to the Top 10 and boosted her hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Rain delays meant that Cibulkova played both her forth round and quarterfinals matches Thursday, claiming the scalp of US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova en route.
Her strong run at Wuhan marks an impressive return for the 27-year-old who missed four months of the season in 2015 after having surgery on her left foot.
A left calf injury also forced her to withdraw from the Rio Olympics.
But the Wimbledon quarterfinalist is now just points away from qualifying for the eight-player WTA Finals in Singapore for the first time.
Despite the semifinal loss, 31-year-old Kuznetsova — who reached world No. 2 in 2007 — is enjoying a late-career resurgence and will likely reach her highest ranking in six years when next week's leaderboard is released.
"I lost little bit my way when I got broken in second set because I felt like I was on top of the game after I won first set," Kuznetsova told reporters after the match.
Berdych beats Vesely
In Shenzhen, China, defending champion Tomas Berdych defeated Czech countryman Jiri Vesely 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-2 in the Shenzhen Open quarterfinals Friday.
Berdych dropped his serve in the opening game but rallied to win the set in a lopsided tiebreaker.
Vesely made the crucial service break in the fourth game of the second set to level the set score, but Berdych broke Vesely three times in the deciding set to win in just over two hours.
Top-seeded Berdych will take on unseeded Thomaz Bellucci in the semifinals, after the Brazilian upset Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-2, 6-2.
Third-seeded Richard Gasquet ended German qualifier Mischa Zverev's run in the tournament 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), and set up a semifinal against Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, who beat Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Thiem falls at Chengdu
In Beijing, top seed Dominic Thiem of Austria was upset in less than an hour by Albert Ramos-Vinolas at the ATP Chengdu Open Friday, as the Spaniard sailed to a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Ramos-Vinolas got off to a commanding start in the first set and never looked back, winning 84 percent of his first serve points and scoring his first ATP head-to-head win over the world number 10.
Third seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, meanwhile, bounced back from a first-set loss to prevail in a two-hour, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 clash with Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, aided by 8 aces to Schwartzman's two.
Rising Russian star Karen Khachanov took 73 minutes to fell fourth-seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4, conceding only six of his first-serve points and dropping 10 aces against the Spaniard.
The 20-year-old, 1.98m (6'6") Russian advances to his first ATP World Tour semifinal, where he will face sixth-seed Viktor Troicki, who notched a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
Tennis officials banned for life
The International Tennis Federation has banned two Turkish officials for life for manipulating scores of matches, assisting fraudulent betting.
The ITF says Serkan Aslan and Mehmet Ulker had their officiating certifications permanently revoked after being found guilty of ethics violations while working on matches in the lower-tier Futures circuit.
The federation says Ulker delayed inputting scores into a device at an event in Turkey, giving third parties an advantage when placing bets.
The ITF also found that Aslan and Ulker manipulated scores by inputting fictitious deuce games into their devices while officiating matches last year. — Agencies
