Kiki Bertens has fallen by the wayside in the Race to Shenzhen but Belinda Bencic can still qualify for the season-ending WTA Finals.

Bertens needed to reach the Kremlin Cup final in Moscow on Friday to overhaul Serena Williams and take the final slot in China.

But the second seed from Holland was beaten 6-4 2-6 6-1 by France’s Kristina Mladenovic in the quarter-finals on Friday, and will now miss out in Shenzhen barring any withdrawals.

US Open semi-finalist Bencic reached the last four by overcoming Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 7-6 (10-8) 6-1, and knows she will pip Williams to eighth place in the rankings if she can get past Mladenovic.

There was guaranteed to be home interest in the second semi-final, and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won the all-Russian clash against Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (7-5) 7-5.

She will face Karolina Muchova, who dashed Russian eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova’s hopes 6-3 6-4.

At the Luxembourg Open second seed Julia Georges battled past Monica Puig in three sets to set up a semi-final against Elena Rybakina.

Anna Blinkova progressed after fellow Russian Margarita Gasparyan retired injured a set and a game down, and she will face Jelena Ostapenko who beat Antonia Lottner 6-1 6-1.