It’s been quite a week for Naomi Osaka.
Coming off taking the Toray Pan Pacific title in the city of her birth, the Japanese star ended the 17-game winning stream of freshly crowned US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the quarterfinals of the China Open in Beijing Friday.
The victory also sealed her place in the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, the fifth player to reach the ￡14 million end-of -season finale.
Doubtless buoyed by the hard-fought victory over the player who succeeded her as the champion at Flushing Meadows, Osaka saw off defending China Open champion Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals Saturday.
It was an emphatic 6-4 6-2 victory in 84 minutes for the 21-year-old Osaka, who is finding her best form late in the season on the Asian swing.
She will face World No.1 Ashleigh Barty in the final after the Australian saved a match point in a three-set win over Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands in the opening semifinal.
World number four Osaka had chances at 3-3 at the first set to make the breakthrough but in the ninth game succeeded and served out for the opener.
An early break in the second set saw more problems for Dane Wozniacki and Osaka raced to victory with a mixture of strong serving and outright winners.
The win was all the more creditable after she revealed that she had slept little after her epic win over Andreescu the night before.
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“I went to sleep at 4:00am, I woke up at 6:00am, so solid two hours, I can’t really sleep after my matches,” said Osaka.
“I just feel like my adrenaline’s up more during the tougher matches so it makes it harder to sleep.”
Osaka will be hoping for a better night’s rest ahead of her fourth career meeting with Barty, who leads 2-1 on the previous encounters.
Thiem into ATP Finals
Meanwhile in the ATP event in Beijing, Dominic Thiem recovered from a set and a break down to beat Karen Khachanov of Russia 2-6 7-6 7-5 to reach the final.
The victory earned the Austrian his place in the ATP Finals in London next month, joining Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Daniil Medvedev as qualifiers for the eight-man field.
Thiem will meet third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final after the Greek saw off second seed Alexander Zverev in the later semifinal.
Tsitsipas won a tight first set tiebreak before running out a 7-6 6-4 winner in just under two hours against his German opponent.