Qinwen Zheng booked her place in the last four of the WTA Finals with a dominant 6-1 6-1 victory over Jasmine Paolini.
The Olympic gold medallist hit 12 aces as she powered past this season's French Open and Wimbledon finalist in just over an hour in Riyadh.
This was the winner-takes-all clash in Purple Group, with both players aiming to join world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals.
The form player since Wimbledon with 29 wins from 34 matches - also including titles in Palermo and Tokyo, plus a run to the final in Wuhan - Zheng quickly asserted her authority on proceedings.
The 22-year-old scored five breaks of serve on the way to becoming the youngest semi-finalist on her WTA Finals debut since Petra Kvitova in 2011.
"Finally, I showed off some tennis I really want to play," she said. "Of course, when you enter the match, you are nervous, but at the same time, you feel confidence because you know your level. And I know how capable I am.
"I remember in 2022, my serve was quite strong. I don't know why but, suddenly in 2023, my serve started to drop. In this tournament and the rest of this half-year, it is the first time I've felt like the serve is starting to come back."
Beating two top-10 players in the same tournament for the first time, Zheng is the first Chinese player to achieve the feat since Li Na (four) at this event 11 years ago.
The seventh seed also follows in the footsteps of Na and Kimiko Date in 1994 as one of three players representing an Asian country to reach the last four at the WTA Finals.
Sabalenka's place in the semi-finals was already secured, rendering her 6-4 3-6 6-1 defeat by Elena Rybakina academic, though ending a seven-match winning streak.
Having shared the two meetings this season in Brisbane and Madrid, the players took a close set each here, but it was one-way traffic in the decider.
In the final match of her first tournament since withdrawing from the US Open with a back injury, Rybakina did not face a single break point in the final set, while winning all 12 points on her first serve, to bow out with victory.
Though academic, it was an historic victory for the Kazahstani, who became the first player representing an Asian country to defeat the world number one at the WTA Finals.
Rybakina is also the fourth player to achieve six or more wins over the WTA's number one across a two-season span, after Tracy Austin (1979-80), Venus Williams (1999-00) and Lindsay Davenport (2000-01).
Manchester United 2-3 Nottingham Forest: Wood hits winner as Amorim's side lose again
Manchester United suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League following a 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford.
Chris Wood's 10th league goal of the season in the 54th minute proved to be the winner as Forest climbed to fifth place – only two points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.
Nikola Milenkovic put the visitors ahead with only 91 seconds on the clock as he headed in a corner from Elliot Anderson, but Rasmus Hojlund levelled the score for United 16 minutes later, following up after Alejandro Garnacho's initial effort was saved by Matz Sels.
Jota Silva and Bruno Fernandes were denied by the woodwork during the first half before Morgan Gibbs-White made it 2-1 to Forest just two minutes after the restart.
Wood then planted a looping header past Andre Onana to double Forest's lead before United captain Fernandes then pulled one back just past the hour mark.
Ruben Amorim's side pushed for an equaliser, but Forest kept them at bay to collect the full points.
Forest now have 25 points from 15 matches, while United are in 13th place with 19 points.
Data Debrief: Wood makes Forest history
Wood's winner was his 25th Premier League goal for Forest and helped him overtake Bryan Roy (24) to become their all-time leading scorer in the competition.
Since Nuno Espírito Santo's appointment in December 2023, only Erling Haaland (21) has scored more non-penalty goals in the competition than Wood (19 – level with Cole Palmer).
Nuno became just the second Forest manager to win both of his first two league games against United, after Fred Earp in the 1909-10 campaign.
Meanwhile, his counterpart Amorim suffered two straight defeats for only the second time, with the first coming during his stint with former club Sporting in August 2022.
Crystal Palace 2-2 Manchester City: Lewis equaliser rescues a point for Guardiola's side
Crystal Palace and Manchester City shared the points in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
It was a result that extended the reigning champions’ winless away run to four league matches, while they have now won just one of their last nine matches in all competitions.
Palace caused Pep Guardiola’s side plenty of problems and merited a point that continues their recent upturn in form.
Daniel Munoz gave the hosts the lead inside four minutes, slotting past City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega from a Will Hughes pass.
But Erling Haaland ended a three-game Premier League goal drought and equalised for the visitors with a header after 31 minutes.
The two sides also shared a goal apiece in the second half, with Maxence Lacroix and Rico Lewis both hitting the target.
Lewis, meanwhile, was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 84th minute, just when City had finally wrestled control of the game.
But neither side were able to find a winner and following the draw, City remain fourth in the Premier League and eight points behind leaders Liverpool. Crystal Palace, meanwhile, climbed a place to 16th and are four points above the bottom three.
Data Debrief: City's away jitters continue
City went into the game having lost their last five games on the road in all competitions, and their poor away form did not improve after dropping two more points at Selhurst Park.
Guardiola's side have also conceded twice in each of their last four away fixtures. The visitors generated an xG of 1.41 from 12 attempts, which is only slightly better than the xG of 1.3 that Palace had from the same number of attempts.
Though Guardiola's side had four shots on target, one more than the hosts, they failed to find a winner and settled for the point.
Palace, meanwhile, are undefeated in their last four games in the Premier League.
Aston Villa 1-0 Southampton: Duran seals back-to-back wins for Emery's side
Jhon Duran scored the only goal as Aston Villa edged out the Premier League's bottom side Southampton 1-0.
The Colombian's first-half strike was enough to seal a hard-fought win for Unai Emery's side, who climbed to fifth in the table after back-to-back victories at Villa Park.
Villa, who ended an eight-match winless streak across all competitions with victory over Brentford on Wednesday, broke through in the 24th minute.
Duran – making his first Premier League start of the season – stole possession from Taylor Harwood-Bellis and burst away from Nathan Wood, before bending the ball into the net.
Southampton could not respond, failing to register a single shot on target, as their winless streak on the road in the top flight stretched to 15 matches.
With Brighton and Fulham not playing until Sunday – and Nottingham Forest in action later on Saturday – Villa leapfrogged the trio to fifth place on 25 points – 20 more than their opponents, who remain seven adrift at the foot of the table.
Data Debrief: A rare clean sheet for Villa
Villa's first Premier League home win without conceding since a 2-0 victory over Wolves in March moves them to within two points of the top four.
It was only a second clean sheet in 20 league games for Emery's side, who are unbeaten in their 12 matches against promoted teams under the Spaniard.
Duran settled the contest with his sixth goal from outside the box since the start of last season, a tally only bettered in the Premier League by Manchester City's Phil Foden (eight).
Following their latest setback, Southampton are just the fourth side to have five or fewer points after 15 games in a Premier League season, after Sunderland (five in 2005-06), and Sheffield United twice (five in 2023-24 and two in 2020-21).
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