Pan Pacific Open: Zheng Qinwen continues awesome Asian swing with second consecutive final

Zheng Qinwen will make her WTA Finals debut in just over a week and has continued her sparkling form reaching the final of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Saturday.

The World No.7 advanced to her second consecutive final after defeating Diana Shnaider 7-6, 6-3 in the semi-finals. It would be a third title of the season for the Olympic gold medalist if she beats former Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin for the title on Sunday.

She has now won 27 out of her last 31 matches since Wimbledon. Over that time, she has won the Palermo Ladies Open, Olympic Gold, reached the US Open Quarter-Finals and reached semi-finals at both China and Wuhan Open. She likely targeted a golden homecoming and has certainly got that with some incredibly consistent form while others have faltered.

This also led to her path becoming smoother towards the WTA Finals with a certain Emma Navarro in particular falling away. She goes into Sunday's final with an 11-2 record this Asian swing and has only been beaten by the best players in that span. It is also her second straight Tokyo final reaching it on debut two years ago.

In the first career meeting between two of the top talents in the game with Shnaider continuing to rise. The 23-year-old went 4-0 up before Shnaider came back to force the first set to a tie-break. She led 5-3 but could not serve it out as Shnaider continued to fight.

Shnaider and Zheng stayed with each other in the tie-break until Queenwen broke the deadlock and earned a fifth set point with an exquisite ace to close it. She then closed out her 47th win of the year from there. Next is Kenin who has come all the way from being a wildcard to reaching the final.

She took down Katie Boulter in the semi-finals in superb style and is into her first final of the year. After being ranked 155 at the start of the week, she will be back within the top 70 come what may in next week's rankings.