Friday 13 October 2017 18:04, UK
Maria Sharapova equalled her best performance since returning from a doping suspension as she breezed into the Tianjin Open semi-finals on Friday.
The Russian easily defeated Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele 6-3 6-1 in 64 minutes and the former world No 1 will face China's Peng Shuai in the last four.
Sharapova returned in April from a 15-month suspension for taking the banned substance meldonium.
In her first tournament back, in Stuttgart, she made it to the semi-finals but has been unable to repeat that feat again, until now.
The 30-year-old, ranked 86 in the world, was granted a wildcard for Tianjin because her ranking was too low.
Peng, the third seed and reigning Tianjin champion, will offer a far sterner test than 196-ranked Voegele.
Home hope Peng thrashed Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-0 6-1 in their quarter-final while Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus beat local hope Zhu Lin 6-3 6-4 in another quarter-final and will take on Sara Errani after the Italian was forced to come from behind to defeat American Christina McHale 5-7 7-6 (7-2) 6-1.
We will have all the action from the conclusion of the Shanghai Masters before we head to the Erste Bank Open and Swiss Indoors Basel and then the Paris Masters.
The Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and season-ending extravaganza World Tour Finals at London's O2 in November end another memorable year which will be covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs and updates as the season reaches its climax.
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