WUHAN -- World No.7 Zheng Qinwen continued to march through her home tournament at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open, advancing to her second straight semifinal by defeating No.5 Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. 

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Zheng's victory sets up the first-ever all-Chinese semifinal at a WTA 1000 event. The 22-year-old Olympic champion will face 23-year-old Wang Xinyu on Saturday, with the winner advancing to her first WTA 1000 final. 

No.51 Wang came through a dramatic effort earlier in the day, saving two match points and coming from a break down in the final set to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) to make her first WTA 1000 semifinal.

"It means we have great players in China," Zheng said. "Our base level was more higher than before, so that's a good thing.

"I mean, it's never easy to play against opponent same like your country. There is a different pressure. I know that. I think we grow basically in the same tournaments. Play the same tournaments in juniors."

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Wuhan will be Zheng's fifth semifinal of the season. She also made the final four at the Australian Open, Palermo, Olympics, and Beijing. 

In their first meeting this season, Zheng improved to 3-0 against Paolini. She bested the Italian twice last season in Palermo and Zhengzhou. In both instances, Zheng went on to win the title. 

In front of a full crowd on Friday night, Zheng improved to a tour-leading 18-3 in three-set matches with another gritty effort. After splitting the first two sets, Zheng and Paolini matched each other from the service line with steady baseline hitting. Paolini had taken the match to a deciding set by locking down her game and using the slower hard court to her advantage, teasing errors out of the bigger-hitting Zheng. 

Zheng and Paolini exchanged holds for seven consecutive games before the Chinese No.1 broke through. Zheng opened the 4-3 game with a curling forehand winner and earned triple break point with another series of violent topspin forehands. She blistered a forehand return to seal her first break since the first game of the second set and served out the win.

"She indeed played very well," Zheng said. "It was an excellent match. Very sharp forehand from her. In terms of rallies, she played really, really excellent. I did very well in the key points. In her service games, I had more break points. She did not get as many break points as I did."

Zheng has stood up to the intense spotlight of her homecoming tour through China, building on her growing reputation as a reliable winner on home soil. Last week at the China Open, Zheng tore through the field to make her first career WTA 1000 semifinal.

This week, she has managed the fatigue of her grueling summer campaign to become the winningest player since Wimbledon. Her win over Paolini is her 23rd victory since the end of the grass season, with just three losses over that span.

Zheng entered the Asian swing at No.9 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard. She will leave Wuhan at No.7 on the Race Leaderboard, overtaking Emma Navarro to sit in the final automatic qualifying spot with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Zheng is trying to become the first Chinese woman to qualify for the WTA Finals since Li Na in 2013.