Elena Rybakina sweeps past Ana Bogdan into Portoroz WTA final

The 25th-ranked Kazakh eased through 6-1, 6-1 against the 65th-ranked Romanian to reach her third final of the season. Rybakina lost the final in Adelaide to Australian Ashleigh Barty, before her surprise Grand Slam success in July against Ons Jabeur at Wimbledon.

The third seed got off to a difficult start in Slovenia needing 3hr 20min to dispatch 173th-ranked Laura Siegemund in the first round. But the 23-year-old Russian-born player had time to recover when her quarter-final was abandoned after her rival Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine withdrew before the match.

On Sunday, Rybakina will bid for her second title of the year and the fourth of her career, against Czech Katerina Siniakova who defeated Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 6-1, 7-5.