Canada's Bianca Andreescu waves to a crowd while playing against Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019.Chris Symes/The Associated Press
Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu is heading to her first WTA Tour event final.
The 18-year-old cruised past 28th-ranked Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan on Saturday 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals at the ASB Classic.
Andreescu, who has performed numerous upsets at the tune-up event for the Australian Open on her way to the final, needed only one hour 21 minutes to down Su-Wei.
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The Mississauga, Ont., native will face Julia Goerges in the final after the German toppled Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova 6-1 7-6(6) in the other semi.
Goerges is the defending champion and ousted Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., earlier in the week on her way back to the championship match. She’s ranked 14th in the world.
Andreescu started the week ranked No. 152 in the world but has knocked out former world No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams at the ASB Classic with back-to-back upsets.
The 37-year-old Williams, who turned pro six years before Andreescu was born, is ranked 39th in the world. Wozniacki, meanwhile, is the world No. 3 and the reigning Australian Open champion.
“I guess Auckland just brings the best out of me,” Andreescu said. “I don’t know what’s going on really.
“I think it’s really important to me to just stay in the present moment and I think I’ve been doing that this whole week and I’m beyond grateful right now.”
The US$250,000 WTA Tour event is a warmup for the first Grand Slam of the season. Andreescu had to earn her way into the event by winning the qualifiers.