A Stage Setting Saturday

Sixth seed Wang Xiyu held her nerve in a tight match to upset top seed Anhelina Kalinina 6-3, 7-6(4) to reach the ATX Open final. After battling on serve to 4-3, Wang broke Kalinina’s serve to take a 5-3 lead and served out the set. In the second set, she managed to hold her serve twice to stay in the set and force a tiebreak, which she won on her first match point.

The second singles semifinal was a much different story, as eighth seed Yuan Yue overpowered Anna Karolina Schmiedlova to take the first eight games. But down 1-5 in the second set, Schmiedlova battled back to 3-5 and saved three match points before Yuan prevailed 6-0, 6-3. Wang and Yuan will contest the first all-Chinese WTA final in North America.

The first doubles match of the day ended before it started when Tereza Mihalikova and Yanina Wickmayer withdrew due to injury. That sent the team of Olivia Gadecki and Olivia Nicholls into the final of their first tournament together, where they will face Katarzyna Kawa and Bibiane Schoofs, also playing their first tournament together. They came from a set down to upset No. 1 seeds Oksana Kalashnikova and Nadiia Kichenok in the semifinals in a tense match that went to a deciding tiebreak, 5-7, 6-4, 10-7.