Israeli underdog Dudi Sela stormed into his first ATP final in Beijing as women's top seed Jelena Jankovic continued her march towards the China Open title.

Sela, ranked 92 in the world and playing in his first ATP semi-final, beat seventh seed and Wimbledon semi-finalist Rainer Schuettler 6-3 6-3.

Sela, who earlier dumped world number five David Ferrer and sixth seed Tommy Robredo from the Beijing tournament, was quickly into his stride, breaking the error-prone Schuettler three times in the opening set.

The 23-year-old kept up his intensity in the second set, forcing what proved to be a decisive break in the sixth game.

He said reaching an ATP final had been a "dream" since breaking into the top 100 of the world rankings.

"Before the match I was very nervous because I wanted to be in the final," he said, adding now he had "nothing to lose."

In the first semi-final in the 600,000-dollar women's draw, Jankovic staved off a fightback from Russia's Vera Zvonareva, taking the match 6-4 2-6 6-4.

Jankovic started the match strongly, taking the first set after forcing two breaks of serve but powerful hitting by Zvonareva, who won the Guangzhou Open last week, brought her level.

The players swapped breaks at the beginning of the decider, but the Serbian world number two forced a further break and sealed the match, which lasted two hours 22 minutes.

Jankovic, briefly world number one in August, would close to within a handful of points of Serena Williams at the top of the women's game with a tournament win.

The late evening match in Beijing will feature China's Zheng Jie against Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In reaching the last four, Zheng has matched the best ever performance by a Chinese player here and her run includes victories over world number four Ana Ivanovic and tenth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska.

Wimbledon semi-finalist Zheng will be looking for a lift from the home fans after she admitted they helped her in her win over Ivanovic, whom she beat on her way to the last four on the grass in London.

"It's not far to win the tournament. I hope that I can win but I'm going to focus on the next match because all the other three players are great players," she said.

The second semi-final in the 524,000-dollar men's draw pits second seed Andy Roddick against Germany's 137th-ranked Bjorn Phau.

Before this tournament, Phau, who shocked Chile's Fernando Gonzalez on Friday, had not won an ATP match all season.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP