World No.1 Ashleigh Barty has played down concerns about a calf injury she sustained during her semi-final defeat at the Wuhan Open.

The French Open champion went down 7-5 6-4 to Aryna Sabalenka and struggled throughout as she was broken three times by the Belarusian who has now beaten the Australian three times in five meetings.

The injury limited her movement and she was forced to call for the medical trainer during the match as she made eight double faults in a contest that last an hour 43 minutes.

“I’m sure (the injury) is nothing that is too alarming. I tried to do the best that I could to protect it in a way without letting it affect my tennis too much,” Barty said.

“Overall, Aryna was the better player today. She was able to control her service games a lot better. I felt at times I was hanging on a little bit.

“I had to take a lot of risks today to try to manage where I was at. I was more in the match than I deserved to be.”

Unseeded American Alison Riske beat two-times champion Petra Kvitova 7-5 7-5 in the other semi-final to advance to her first Premier final.

Kvitova’s poor service game saw her concede 15 break points, of which Riske converted four to win the match in straight sets despite a late fightback from the Czech who finished with 45 unforced errors.

“I always thought I was good, but I never really kind of embodied that,” Riske said. “In the big moments, I wasn’t really delivering.

“I feel like it’s taken me a while. I had spurts of it. I’m 29, so it’s about time I get something right here.”