WUHAN: Iga Swiatek kept up her bid for a WTA Finals place with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Ann Li on Friday that set up an all-Polish semi-final at the Wuhan Open.

The six-time Grand Slam champion will face Maja Chwalinska for a place in the final.

Swiatek is chasing one of the last two remaining spots in the eight-player line-up at next month`s WTA Finals in Indian Wells and took another step forward by reaching the Wuhan semis for the first time in her career.

`For sure it`s great that we have two Polish players in the semi-finals,` said Swiatek of her upcoming clash with childhood friend Chwalinska.

`I think it means a lot to Polish tennis, so hopefully it`s going to be a nice match. I`m really happy for Maja, she for sure improved her game this year.

It had been a banner week for 26-year-old Li, who stunned world number two Aryna Sabalenka in the second round and recorded the 100th tour-levelvictory of her career in the third round to reach a maiden WTA 1000 quarter-final.

The American world number 31 gave Swiatek a hard time in the opening set.

But despite committing 21 unforced errors and facing three break points, Swiatek hung onto the one-break gap she created early on and took a one-set lead in 56 minutes.

Swiatek made a strong start to the second set and never let go, as she moved into her fourth WTA 1000 semi-final of the year.

French Open finalist Chwalinska reached her first WTA 1000 semi-final with a 6-0, 3-6, 7-5 triumph over Greece`s Maria Sakkari.

Earlier, Sonay Kartal claimed the second top-10 win ofhercareerandguaranteedherselfareturntothe top 100 with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian world number six Elina Svitolina.

The first British player to make the semi-finals in Wuhan, Kartal missed six months of action this season with a spinal stress fracture before returning to competition three weeks ago.

Ranked a career-high 44 in the world 15 months ago, Kartal plummeted to 170 in the rankings due to her injury-enforced absence. The 24-year-old is the lowestranked semi-finalist in Wuhan Open history.

Ostapenko advanced to her second Wuhan Open semi-final, and first since 2017, with a 7-6(8/6), 6-1 performance against lith-seeded Diana Shnaider.-AFP