Jelena Ostapenko defeated the seventh-seed Liudmila Samsonova in straight sets by 6-1, 7-6(4) in one hours and 28 minutes to reach the Luxembourg Open final on Saturday.
The Latvian won the tournament in 2019 and the result sees her progress into her second final of the year after winning the Eastbourne title in June.
“At some point I stopped playing my game,” Ostapenko said in the on-court interview afterwards. “I missed so many balls and I started to rush. [But the key was] to fight to stay in the match.
“I played really well in the beginning but I couldn’t close it — I had to fight and enjoy it.”
Ostapenko will face unseeded Clara Tauson in Sunday’s final after she upset Marketa Vondrousova of Czech Republic by 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Information from Associated Press was included in this report.