A DROUGHT will be broken one way or another in today’s Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo when top seed Qinwen Zheng and American wildcard Sofia Kenin face off the in the WTA 500’s decider. Zheng is gunning for her first WTA Tour title outside of Palermo, while Kenin can break an incredible four-year titleless break with a victory.

Zheng did win an Olympic gold medal in Paris this year, but on Tour, her two titles have come back-to-back in Palermo. Consistently getting close – including a final in Wuhan where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka for the third time this year a fortnight ago – Zheng now head into a decider as strong favourite.

The top seed dismissed a hard challenge from young Russian and sixth seed Diana Shnaider to come away with the 7-6 6-3 victory. Zheng won 78 per cent of her first serve points – along with seven aces – compared to Shnaider’s 63 per cent and just one.

World number seven Zheng also broke four times from nine chances, while Shnaider converted three of five. The first serve efficiency was still a worry for the Chinese hope (running at just 52 per cent for the match) but she was able to be too strong when it did go in and got clear in the second set to seal the deal in an hour and 49 minutes.

Meanwhile in the other semi-final, Kenin continued her great run in Tokyo through to the final with an upset victory over British ninth seed, Katie Boulter. Kenin won 6-4 6-4 in the pair’s first completed match of their head-to-head. Boulter won via walkover in Miami 2018, while Kenin was leading 6-4 4-1 in Acapulco a year later before Boulter retired mid-match.

In the match overnight, it was hard to fault Kenin won won 72 and 63 per cent of her first and second serve points off a 73 per cent clip. Boulter’s efficiency of 51 per cent was poor, but she did capitalise on three quarters of her first serve points.

In the end, the American needed an hour and 29 minutes to overcome the Brit, saving four of five break points she faced, while setting up eight and converting three of her own to ensure she closed out the contest in straight sets.

“She’s (Zheng) been having an amazing year,” Kenin said on the prospect of facing her opponent. “I’m just going to rest up and see what happens. I’ve never played her so I don’t really know much of her game style. I’ll have to do some homework. As long as I don’t get killed, I’m good. Just see how it goes tomorrow.”

While Kenin did make the San Diego final last year, she has not won a title since Lyon way back in 2020 when she was inside the Top 5 and among the brightest young stars in the world. She won the 2020 WTA Player of the Year of Award finishing the season at fourth, before injury saw her tumble down the world rankings, never quite getting a clean run at it until now.

Still very rusty at times, Kenin will be eyeing off a return to the world’s Top 50 in the new year, with the world number 155 already slashing her ranking by 67 spots into 88th in the world. A victory in the Tokyo final would see her move to 62nd in the world and with a Top 50 place, Kenin would largely avoid having to go through qualifying or gain wildcards in 2025.

The final takes takes place at 2pm AESDT today, followed by the doubles final straight after that.