BEIJING -- No.5 seed Zheng Qinwen advanced to her first WTA 1000 semifinal on Friday by engineering a staunch comeback to defeat 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 at the China Open. 

Beijing: Scores | Order of Play | Draws

Zheng, 21, is the first Chinese semifinalist in Beijing since Wang Qiang in 2018. The reigning Olympic champion came from a break down in the final set to keep alive her bid to become Beijing's first home-grown champion. She remains a stalwart on home soil, making the semifinals or better in three of the four Hologic WTA Tour tournaments she has played in China. She has not lost to a player ranked outside the Top 20 in China (9-0). 

"I'm just happy to be in the semifinal," Zheng said. "Today in the match, there were lot of up and downs. I'm just happy they were there supporting me. I feel if it's not in China Open, this match could be more trickier than that."

Zheng is bidding to advance to her first WTA 1000 final. She will face US Open semifinalist Karolina Muchova in the semifinals on Saturday, a rematch of this year's Palermo final won by Zheng. 

A finalist at the Australian Open in January, Zheng is into her fourth semifinal of the season. Since bowing out in the first round at Wimbledon, Zheng has now won 20 of her last 22 matches, a stretch that includes her title defense in Palermo, Olympic gold in Paris, and a second US Open quarterfinal. She entered the week at No.9 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals.

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In the first career meeting between two of the tour's most exciting rising young stars, Andreeva took advantage of a shakey start from Zheng to strike first. Zheng hit 19 unforced errors in the first set and fell behind 4-0. Zheng mounted a gritty comeback by dialing in her margins and clawed her way back to earn a chance to serve out the set at 5-4. 

Andreeva snuffed out Zheng's chance, breaking the Chinese player's serve twice in the last three games to take the first set. 

Zheng's first-set comeback may have fallen short, but she had found a successful blueprint for success. She broke Andreeva immediately to start the second set and raced through six consecutive games to force her second-straight three-set match of the week. 

"At the beginning of the match I'm trying to be more calmer, trying to be more gentle with the opponent because I know she's more younger," Zheng said. "But after what I see with my tennis today, I say, I'm not going to win today by my tennis, I'm going to win today by my mentality."

Andreeva led 4-2 in the third set before Zheng mounted her final stand. Ultimately, Zheng's sustained return pressure was the difference. Andreeva held a break advantage twice in the final set but could not close. Zheng generated 18 break points in the match and broke nine times. The Chinese star dug in to break twice and win the final four games to seal an emotional win after 2 hours and 32 minutes. 

Zheng finished the match with 32 winners and 38 unforced errors, while holding Andreeva to 15 winners and 36 unforced errors. 

Despite the loss, Andreeva will make her Top 20 debut after the tournament.