WUHAN: Former world No.1 Venus Williams salvaged a small bit of family pride when she fought back from a set down to see off Italy’s Roberto Vinci 5-7 6-2 7-6(4) and reach the final of the Wuhan Open on Friday.

The 35-year-old American, winner of seven grand slam singles titles, will face Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza after the Spaniard knocked out Germany’s Angelique Kerber 6-4 7-6(5).

Vinci, who stunned Venus’s younger sister Serena in the semifinals of the US Open last month, had fought back from 3-0 down to take a topsy-turvy first set featuring five breaks of serve.

But she failed to hit the heights thereafter as Venus, who won her 700th match on tour earlier this week, took command in the second set, racing ahead 5-1 before forcing the decider.

An early break put the American up 3-1 in the third set but she stumbled when serving for the match at 5-3, with the Italian, chasing a best-ever world ranking of 11th this week, breaking and then holding her own serve to make it 5-5.

It was then Vinci’s turn to wobble when serving for the match. The doubles specialist, who lost the US Open final to compatriot Flavia Pennetta, failed to convert a match point and was broken as Williams forced a tiebreak.

Williams secured an early mini-break as she wrapped up the match in just under three hours to reach her 77th career final and first at the fledgling tournament staged in the home town of China’s first grand slam singles champion Li Na.

“Definitely watching the match at the US Open, I learned a lot from Serena,” Williams told reporters after her win.

“If I could, I’d give my win to Serena at the US Open — unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.”

Muguruza suffered an ankle injury but kept up her bid to qualify for the eight-woman end-of-year WTA Tour finals in Singapore by coming through a hard-fought clash against sixth seed Kerber.

The Venezuelan-born 21-year-old called the trainer at 3-3 in the second set tiebreaker but recovered to claim the win.

Ferrer, Lopez win in quarters

In Kuala Lumpur, top seed David Ferrer from Spain advanced to the semifinals of the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur on Friday after defeating Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in straight sets.

The world No.8 showed off his powerful groundstrokes, winning the match 6-3, 6-4.

The 33-year-old will next be battling Germany’s Benjamin Becker who beat fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) in an earlier quarterfinal match.

“I’m feeling good physically. I have won both my matches in straight games and I must maintain this consistency,” said Ferrer.

“Tomorrow will be another tough game, but I will rest well and be prepared,” he added.

Second seed Feliciano Lopez recovered from a first game setback to overcome Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-2.

“Fitness and mental strength is very important in tennis, and I am thankful to be going strong at 34,” said the Spaniard.

“I knew he (Pospisil) was tiring at the end and I was happy to win. I played a great match and was more confident than I was on Thursday.”

Lopez will face off with seventh seed Nick Kyrgios from Australia who went through to the semifinals after beating third seed Ivo Karlovic from Croatia 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2).

During last year’s Malaysian Open, Kyrgios was knocked out in the first round.

Meanwhile, Treat Huey from The Philippines and Henri Kontinen from Finland were the first pair to book their place in the men’s doubles final after a 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/2), 10-7 victory over German Andre Begemann and Artem Sitak from New Zealand.