HONG KONG, SAR – No.5 seed Caroline Wozniacki ended Jelena Jankovic’s title defense hopes in straight sets at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open.

Wozniacki came into the encounter with Jankovic locked at 5-5 in their head-to-head record, but it had been two years since their last match. The resurgent Wozniacki – who’s won 17 of her last 20 matches – was able to break the tie and win 6-3, 6-2.

“I was very happy with the way I played – I think it was high level, from both of us,” Wozniacki said in her post-match press conference. “Wins like this always give a lot of confidence. I’m really pleased that I was able to win in two sets.”

Wozniacki and Jankovic traded breaks twice during a tense opening set. But then Dane found another gear with her aggressive groundstrokes and rattled off eight consecutive games to take the opening set 6-3 and go up a double break in the second, 4-0.

Jankovic managed to get one of the breaks back to narrow Wozniacki’s lead, but the resurgent Dane had pulled too far ahead, and they stayed on serve until Wozniacki closed out the match after an hour and forty-three minutes.

Excited to be in to another finals tomorrow! One more to go! #HongKong #finalno42 pic.twitter.com/p3ZYGmKnJu

— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) October 15, 2016

“I’m really happy to be in another final,” Wozniacki said. It’s been a good week, and obviously it’s going to be a tough one tomorrow but I’m excited to play.”

Regardless of the result in the final, Wozniacki has already declared her post-US Open campaign and rankings comeback a success.

“I think I can be very proud of myself and the way I managed to fight back [this season],” she reflected. “Before the US Open, I was almost 80 in the rankings, now I’m back near the Top 20. It’s a big step.

“I think most importantly I’ve been playing well and getting a lot of wins in. I think that’s something I’m very proud of, and something I haven’t been through before.

“Proving to myself that I’m still one of the top players and that I’m tough to beat – regardless of how I do tomorrow or in Luxembourg – is definitely something that I could call a success.”

She sets up a final against Kristina Mladenovic after the Frenchwoman ousted Daria Gavrilova – author of yesterday’s upset over World No.1 Angelique Kerber – in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3.

“It was a very difficult match, Dasha is a great player around the baseline and she’s very tricky,” Mladenovic said in her post-match press conference. “We saw her in the match against Kerber, and well, I thought it was a good fight for me out there and I’m very happy to win and be in the final in Hong Kong.”