Alize Cornet to face Monica Niculescu in Guangzhou final

World number 22 Cornet is the only seed remaining in the WTA International hard-court event and showed her class in a 6-1 7-6 (7-5) win over Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky.

The Frenchwoman was made to work for her triumph - compiled in two hours - but will now feel confident of winning her second title of the year.

The second seed, who won in Katowice earlier in 2014, burst out of the blocks in the first set, winning 71 per cent of points on first serve and making two breaks.

Bacsinszky responded in the second set, and her improved serving frustrated Cornet.

Cornet also converted just one of her seven break points, forcing a tie-break.

But she proved her quality when it counted, progressing through to a showdown against Romanian Niculescu.

Niculescu faced in-form Chinese wildcard Wang Yafan but was utterly convincing in a 6-0 6-2 triumph.

The world number 60 needed 72 minutes to record her victory against a player who grabbed the headlines in the first round when she stunned top seed Samantha Stosur.

There was to be no upset on this occasion, though, as Niculescu - who made six breaks - was rarely troubled.

Cornet and Niculescu have met just twice before, with both clashes coming at grand slams.

Cornet won in three sets at Wimbledon in 2007 qualifying but Niculescu came from behind to win the 2012 first-round meeting at the Australian Open.