Kristina Mladenovic continued her brilliant run in the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy as she booked her place in the final against Yulia Putintseva.
France’s world No.51 had already put out Australian Open finalist Venus Williams and then added the scalp of 2016 St Petersburg champion Roberta Vinci in the last eight, before a hard-fought semi-final success over wildcard Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
Russian teenager Vikhlyantseva took the first set but Mladenovic would not be denied as she dug in to take the match 4-6 6-2 6-2.
Putintseva, born in Moscow but who represents Kazakhstan, then got the better of a tough battle with the tournament’s number two seed Dominika Cibulkova.
Ranked 26 places below her world No.5 opponent, it was Putintseva who prevailed 3-6 6-4 6-4 after more than two hours and 20 minutes.
In the Taiwan Open in Taipei City, number one seed Elina Svitolina will face China’s Shuai Peng in Sunday’s final.