Australia's Ashleigh Barty defeated French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko to reach Saturday's Wuhan Open final.
The 21-year-old beat her 20-year-old Latvian opponent 6-3 6-0 and will face France's Caroline Garcia, who beat Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-3 6-2.
Ostapenko, ranked 10 in the world, knocked out world number one Garbine Muguruza in the quarter-finals but seemed to struggle with a wrist injury.
Barty is ranked 37th but began 2017 outside the world's top 300.
She also defeated Karolina Pliskova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Britain's number one Johanna Konta on her route to the final in China.