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11/22/2024 02:03:16 am

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Tianjin Open: Peng Shuai and Saisai Zheng Eliminated in Semfinals

Peng Shuai retired during her semifinals matchup against Belinda Bencic to advance to the finals of the inaugural Tianjin Open in China

(Photo : tennisnow.com)

Peng Shuai retired during her semifinals matchup against Belinda Bencic while Saisai Zheng was eliminated by American Alison Riske at the inaugural Tianjin Open in China on Saturday.

Shuai walked onto the hard courts of the Tianjin International Center to the cheer of the crowds, feeling quite comfortable as she eyes her first WTA Tour title with both players holding onto their serves at 1-all in the first set.

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The 17-year-old Swiss broke Shuai on her second serve and then held on to her serve but when it's time for the Tianjin native to serve, she decided to retire the match while trailing 1-3.

"I am exhausted and I can barely move my feet," said Shuai.

Shuai, 28, also retired during her semifinals matchup against Caroline Wozniacki when she cramped up while trailing 3-4 in the second set due to the heat and playing daily in both singles and doubles competition.

With Shuai's retirement, Bencic will move on to her first ever WTA tournament finals against American Alison Riske. If Bencic wins, she will become the youngest player since Tamira Paszek, 15, in 2006 to win a WTA event.

Bencic is already the youngest player in the WTA rankings at 35 in the World.

Riske also moved on to her first WTA finals after clobbering Zheng of China 6-0 6-1 in their semis encounter.

The sixth seeded Riske had very little problems en route to the finals as she has yet to drop a set in all of her matches.

In the doubles competition, second seeds Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova barely made it to the finals as they fought off a determined Yifan Xu of China and Chinese Taipei's Chin-wei Chan in a close three-set match 6-4 4-6 11-9.

The Russian and Australian tandem will face Sorana Cirstea and Andreja Klepac in the finals.

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