Watson reaches Tianjin tennis final

Heather Watson has continued her impressive form, storming into the Tianjin Open final with a straight-sets victory over Russian Veronika Kudermetova.

The British No.2 showed no signs of nerves in her first WTA Tour semi-final in more than a year, winning 6-1 6-4 on Saturday in one hour and 14 minutes.

After impressive wins over second seed Wang Qiang and No.8 Magda Linette of Poland, Watson will face Rebecca Peterson in the final after the Swede's 0-6 6-4 7-5 defeat of Tunisia's Ons Jabeur.

The 27-year-old, who will return next week to the top 100, needed just over three hours on Friday to get past Linette, 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6), in an epic quarter-final.

But there were no signs of fatigue as she raced through the first set in only 25 minutes, breaking twice as Kudermetova struggled with her serve.

Watson moved 4-2 ahead in the second set and, despite not converting two match points, she eventually managed to get the job done to reach her fourth career WTA final.