(September 21, 2012) -- Two rising stars of the WTA both had high hopes in the semis of the GRC Bank Guangzhou International Women's Open but only one booked her place in tomorrow's finals.

 

Urszula Radwanska, who started the year ranked outside the top 100 but is now at a career high No. 39 tried to reach her second final of the year when she took on Hsieh Su-Wei in the first semi. The match ended up being an up and down affair as Hsieh easily took the first set 6-1 while Radwanska won the second to force a decider.

 

But with the help of a healthy 71% first serve percentage for the match, Hsieh didn't face a break point in the final set as she went on to rout Radwanska to earn a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 victory and with it reached her second final of the year. Hsieh will be seeking her second title of 2012 having won Kuala Lumpur earlier this spring.

 

The other semi featured 18-year-old Laura Robson of the U.K. who has backed up her impressive showing at the U.S. Open with another deep run this week that has included knocking out several Chinese players including Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai. 

 

Facing No. 3 seed Sorana Cirstea, Robson jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the first set before Cirstea cut down on her errors to climb back to 4-5 before the Brit closed out the set 6-4.

 

The second set almost proved to be a repeat of the first as Robson once again opened up an early lead. Serving down 1-4, Cirstea got to 40-0 before Robson forced things to deuce. What looked like an easy service game for Cirstea turned into a multiple deuce marathon game that saw both women hit tremendous winners from all sides of the court. Robson couldn't convert on her first five break point chances, but finally did so on her sixth with a forehand down the line winner to go up 5-1.

 

Robson couldn't serve out the match though and found herself broken for 5-2. But Cirstea couldn't sustain her brief momentum as she got down 0-40 in her next service game. A final groundstroke error from Cirstea sealed the 6-4, 6-2 victory for Robson who now enters her first career WTA final.

 

Robson is now the first Brit to reach a WTA final since Jo Durie did so back in 1990. Robson could enter the top 60 rankings wise should she win tomorrow's final.