Fifth-seeded Dane Clara Tauson has steamrolled her way into the ASB Classic women's final, accounting for tournament favourite Madison Keys and American Robin Montgomery in quick succession, as Auckland weather compresses the event schedule.
When rain suspended play on Friday, Tauson, 22, was forced to return the next morning to finally dispatch Keys, after winning the opening set and squandering an early break in the second. She needed just 30 minutes to finish off the American 6-4 7-6(6) and then returned to centrecourt less than three hours later to face Montgomery, who had reached the final four with a straight sets win over countrywoman Bernarda Pera before the weather broke.
Tauson created plenty of service-break chances — 14 in total —against Montgomery, but could only capitalise on four, which proved more than enough. Leading 3-2 in the second set, she created four breakpoints, before Montgomery finally held serve for the last time in the match.
The Dane made no mistake with her next opportunity and served the contest out in 1h 26m.
"It means everything," she said. "I've really worked hard to get to this level again after many injuries, so I'm super happy with this result.
"Robin is a great player and we had a great match today, and I'm just happy that I kept my cool."
Currently ranked 50th in the world, Tauson reached a career high of 33rd in February 2022, and has won two previous WTA singles titles at Lyon and Luxembourg the previous year, both on hardcourt surface, like Auckland.
"I don't think I can take anything [from that]," she said. "It's been some years since I've been in a final like this, so I'll just try to enjoy it as much as I can.
"I have doubles later today, so I have to take it one thing at a time and be ready for tomorrow.
"I'll try to recover and see what happens."
Tauson and American Sloane Stephens are scheduled to face Serb Aleksandra Krunic and American Sabrina Santamaria in a doubles semi on Saturday evening.
She now comes up against Japanese seventh seed Naomi Osaka, who bested American Alysha Parks, another forced into double duty when her quarterfinal against countrywoman Katie Volynets was held over from Friday night.
The four-time Grand Slam winner stumbled first against Parks, losing her serve to fall 3-1 behind in the opening set, but struck back immediately, winning the next four games, including two service breaks to run away 6-4.
The second set was one-way traffic, as Osaka broke her opponent's opening service game, then broke again. At 5-1 down, Parks held serve to stay alive and forced three breakpoints in the next game, but conceded them all, as Osaka was not to be denied.
"Of course, I'm happy to reach the final and I've never actually made the final of a tournament the week before Melbourne [Australian Open], so this is a career first for me," beamed Osaka, who will also contest her first final since giving birth to daughter Shai in July 2023.
"I'm really happy, but there's always constantly things to improve, no matter how old you are. I was just trying to survive, she was hitting such amazing shots and I just kept thinking to myself, 'Give her one more ball to play, try to get lucky'.
"There was one net-cord point I really needed — I'm really sorry to her, but I really needed that — I tried to focus on my serve and keep pushing."
The former world No.1 has already won seven WTA singles titles, including two Australian Open crowns and two US Open titles, and this will be her 12th final.
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