Tennis-China's Zheng books maiden Grand Slam final spot at Australian Open

But after beating a string of lower ranked players to reach the final, the 21-year-old will now face a formidable opponent in Belarusian second seed Sabalenka, who has not lost a set in the past two weeks. Zheng kept up the pressure on Yastremska in the first set, blasting cross-court winners off both wings, and left the Ukrainian clutching her abdomen in pain.

China's Zheng Qinwen ended the fairytale run of qualifier Dayana Yastremska at the Australian Open with a 6-4 6-4 victory on Thursday to reach her first Grand Slam final, where she will face defending champion Aryna Sabalenka. The points were short and sharp for most of the battle and followed the same pattern in both sets, with the two swapping breaks early on and then 12th seed Zheng snaring the extra break in the seventh game both times.

"It feels unbelievable," Zheng said on court. "I'm super excited to have such a great performance today and get into the final. My opponent played unbelievable tennis and has really good baseline strokes. It's tough to explain my feelings now."

Zheng, who has rained down more aces by far than any other woman at Melbourne Park in her journey to the final, is bidding to match her hero, Li Na, who became the first Chinese Grand Slam winner by taking the Australian Open crown 10 years ago. But after beating a string of lower ranked players to reach the final, the 21-year-old will now face a formidable opponent in Belarusian second seed Sabalenka, who has not lost a set in the past two weeks.

Zheng kept up the pressure on Yastremska in the first set, blasting cross-court winners off both wings, and left the Ukrainian clutching her abdomen in pain. After taking a medical timeout off court, the 23-year-old returned to court with Zheng holding in the next game.

The Ukrainian extended the set by winning the following game with a clever drop shot but piled on the errors, handing Zheng the first set. Zheng started off stronger in the second set, holding her first service game to love and then snatching an early break after a string of errors from Yastremska, but the 23-year-old Ukrainian broke straight back.

Zheng broke again in the seventh game, helped by a double fault from Yastremska and a shanked shot that flew long. Yastremska bravely held her serve, with Zheng fluffing an easy smash, but the Chinese player then came back to clinch the match with an unreturnable serve.