KAZAKHSTAN up-and-comer Elena Rybakina has made her second consecutive WTA Tour final after a three-set win over Great Britain’s Heather Watson today. The 20-year-old third seed made her way through to the Hobart International final, backing up the effort from her Shenzhen Open achievement where she made it through to the decider before going down to eventual winner, Ekaterina Alexandrova. Now through to the Hobart final, Rybakina will face fourth seed, China’s Zhang Shuai who toppled fifth seed Russian, Veronika Kudermetova.

In the thrilling three-set contest, Rybakina won a see-sawing affair, breaking her opponent five times from attacking the second term and achieving a 57.5 per cent second serve return rate on her way to a tough 6-4 3-6 6-4 victory in the semi-final. Rybakina also put down 10 aces to Watson’s four, though the Brit was consistent on her first serve, winning 70.2 per cent of points, but also missed out on more break point opportunities, with just three achieved from a possible seven. In the end, Rybakina had the slight upperhand throughout the contest.

It was more one-way traffic in the other final with Shuai proving too good for Kudermetova on her way to a 6-3 6-4 victory to book a spot in the final. Kudermetova had a free ride through to the semis after opponent and second seed, Garbine Muguruza had to withdraw from the quarter final clash due to injury, though Shuai raced through her quarter final to not make much of a difference when it came to on-court time. In the penultimate match, both players had two break point opportunities and Shuai took both, while Kudermetova was unable to capitalise on her chances. Shuai dominated across the serving statistics, recording an elite first serve percentage of 78.6, and won 77.3 per cent of her first serve points, making it hard for Kudermetova to get a look in. It was another clinical performance from the Chinese fourth seed who is now one win away from her third career title. The final is at 1pm tomorrow.

Semi-finals results:

[3] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) defeated Heather Watson (GBR) 6-3 4-6 6-4
[4] Zhang Shuai (CHN) defeated [5] Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) 6-3 6-4