Britain’s Johanna Konta withstood a fightback by Madison Keys and third seed Agnieszka Radwanska beat Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina on Saturday to reach to the China Open final.
Konta beat Keys 7-6(1) 4-6 6-4 victory and will become the first British woman to break into the top 10 of the WTA rankings since Jo Durie in 1984.
Radwanska, the 2011 champion, secured a 7-6(3) 6-3 victory over Svitolina, who upset world number one Angelique Kerber earlier in the tournament, in one hour 41 minutes.
Keys committed 47 unforced errors against the 11th-seeded Konta, who will move up to eighth place in the race to qualify for the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
“I’m definitely enjoying my time here. It’s my first time in Beijing and I hope to play many more times here. It’s an amazing atmosphere, such a beautiful stadium, it’s a real pleasure to play here,” Konta told reporters.
“She’s (Keys) such a high-quality player, has such a weight of shot -I just tried to run down as many balls as I could and tried to take the chances I got.”
