Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic will play Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Sunday’s Kremlin Cup final in Moscow after beating Kristina Mladenovic 6-3 6-4.
Third seed Bencic came through a high-quality encounter against her French opponent in one hour and 35 minutes, and in doing so secured her place in the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen.
The 22-year-old sealed the eighth and last WTA Finals singles place by reaching the final in Moscow and out-performing Kiki Bertens, who lost to Mladenovic in the quarter-finals.
“I’m so happy I reached the top eight. It was a huge goal for me this season and so last-minute,” Bencic said on court in her post-match interview.
“I was so nervous before the match, but also reaching the final here (in Moscow) is amazing. I’m so happy.”
Russian Pavlyuchenkova squandered a match point in a second set tie-break, but came through 6-4 6-7 (8-6) 6-1 against the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova, who reached the last eight at Wimbledon last summer.