Ukrainian wildcard Dayana Yastremska overcame number 2 seed Sorana Cristea 7-6 (7-5)4-6 6-4 in 2 hours and 31 minutes to reach the final at the Open 6ème Sens in Lyon.
Yastremska set up a final against number 8 seed Zhang Shuai, who edged past Caroline Garcia 6-2 7-5 in 1 hour and 75 minutes.
Both Yastremska and Zhang Shuai will play in their fifth career final.
Yastremska lost to Ashleigh Barty in her last final in Adelaide 2020. The Ukrainian will be chasing her fourth career title and their first trophy since Strasbourg 2019. Zhang is aiming to win her first title since Guangzhou 2017.
Yastremska rallied from 1-4 down and pulled back on serve in the opening set. Yastremska fended off two set points with backhand winners, as she was serving at 5-6. Yastremska closed out the tie-break 7-5 with a service winner on her first set point.
Yastremska opened up a 3-0 lead, but Cristea reeled off six of the next seven games to win the second set 6-4 forcing the match to the decisive set.
Yastremska wasted three match points at 5-3 in the third set after a double fault on the second chance. The Ukrainian player did not convert another match point, as Cristea earned a break point. The Romanian player converted it, but Yastremska sealed the win on her fourth match point.
“It was a really tough match. In the third set, when I had match points and I lost that game, I was a bit crazy. I thought, I am done. I have lost because I don’t have any more power. Then everybody was supporting me, and I felt like, you can do it. I read a lot of news every day. Sometimes during the night I get messages from groups with the news. Sometimes I wake up and read what’s going on, especially with my city. I would not say I sleep here really good”, said Yastremska.
Zhang dropped just eight points on her first serve and saved two of her three break points she faced.
Garcia saved four double break points and came back from 1-3 to take a 4-3 lead. Zhang broke serve to break in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead, and converted her second match point, as Garcia sent her backhand long.
Yastremska is 1.1 level against Zhang in their previous two head-to-head matches. Yastremska beat Zhang 7-5 6-4 in the semifinals in Hong Kong en route to her first WTA title in 2018. Zhang beat Yastremska 6-4 1-6 6-2 in the Wimbledon fourth round in 2019.
