Ash Barty’s rapid rise up the women’s tennis rankings is not done yet, with the rejuvenated Australian poised to finish the season inside the world’s top 16.

The 21-year-old added another top-20 scalp to her burgeoning 2017 collection on Thursday in China, outplaying former world No.1 Angelique Kerber 6-3 6-4 at the WTA Elite Trophy tournament.

The win takes her through to Saturday’s semi-finals after Wednesday’s 6-4 6-1 defeat of world No.14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Barty had started the week ranked a career-best 20 but she has jumped four spots on the live rankings with back-to-back wins.

There are many permutations, given the round-robin nature of the Zhuhai tournament, but no matter what transpires leading up to Sunday’s final, Barty will enter January’s Australian Open pushing for a top-16 seeding.

Barty’s win – her ninth this season against top-20 opponents – was a symbolic one, after the Ipswich talent had opened her 2017 campaign with a tight three-set loss to Kerber in Brisbane.

Kerber was world No.1 and Barty ranked 271 in their January encounter. Thursday’s loss will likely result in the German falling behind Barty and possibly out of the top 20.

The Australian only returned to tennis in early 2016 after a season playing cricket in the women’s Big Bash League for Brisbane Heat.

Her serve was again on song against Kerber, with two of her 11 aces sealing both sets and steering her out of trouble when the German mounted a comeback early in the second set.

Barty has spent just 145 minutes on court for her two victories to be the first woman to progress from the group stage.

The tournament features the 12 best-ranked players who didn’t qualify for Singapore’s eight-player WTA Finals.

Her Saturday opponent won’t be known until matches are completed on Friday.