By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday October 13, 2023
Zheng Qinwen and Barbora Krejcikova each swept through their semifinals on Saturday at Zhengzhou.
Photo Source: Zhengzhou Open
Zheng Qinwen and Barbora Krejcikova each breezed through their semifinals on Saturday at the Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open, setting up a first-time meeting for the title on Sunday.
Zheng powered past Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-3 in 75 minutes, while Krejcikova took out Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-0 in 90 minutes.
Zheng, who defeated Paolini for her first title this summer in Palermo, will play for her first title on home soil. She is 31-18 on the season, and playing with new coach Wu Di in her box for the first time this week.
"I feel like I could have played better today, especially my serve could be better, but I won the match at the end and it's great that I have another chance to show my game," Zheng said. "I would like to be more aggressive in the next match, there are a lot of things I would like to improve still."
Krejcikova improves to 4-0 in semifinals in 2023 – the Czech will bid for her 8th career title and third of 2023. She improves to 3-1 against Kasatkina, and 31-16 on the season
"I don't know too much about her game and I've never played against her before so I don't know what I'm going to face because it's different when you watch a video and how she really hits the ball in reality," Zheng said of the 2021 Roland-Garros title winner. "I'm just going to play my game, I'm going to be aggressive, maybe more than today and at the same time I will try to play solid and just be focused on the moment and what I'm going to do right now."