Johanna Konta has boosted her hopes of reaching the WTA Finals with a hard-fought victory over Carla Suarez Navarro in the Wuhan Open quarter-finals.
The British number one has work to do if she wants to progress through to the end-of-season event in Singapore, but she has improved her chances with a 7-5 7-6 triumph over the Spaniard, who sits above her in the standings.
A tight first set was decided when Konta struck in the 12th and final game but the second was a back-and-forth affair which saw Konta twice come back from a break down.
She saved three set points to get back to 5-5 before missing out on a match point before the set ended in a tie-break, which was heading in Suarez Navarro's direction when she brought up three more set points.
However, Konta saved them all and after creating a second match point, a cross-court forehand found the line and she was able to celebrate a win which took over two hours.
She will now face either Angelique Kerber or Petra Kvitova for a place in the semi-finals.
Darren Plant
