Marina Erakovic has continued her impressive run of form in Asia by reaching the semifinals of a US$50,000 ($69,658) tournament in Japan.
Erakovic, named Auckland Tennis' player of the year this week, beat sixth seed Suchanun Viratprasert, of Thailand, 6-3, 6-2 in yesterday's quarter-final in Fukuoka.
That set up amatch in the last four against Chan Yung-Jan, of Taiwan, in the ITF tournament.
It was the second time in a week that Erakovic had beaten the Thai Fed Cup player, who is ranked No 251 in the world, compared with the New Zealander's No 330.
Erakovic has made significant strides up the rankings list in the past month.
She should get a good gauge of her progress when she plays Chan tomorrow.
The Taiwanese player is ranked No 313, although numbers in that range can be relatively meaningless.
Earlier, Erakovic had advanced from qualifying to beat Italian Francesca Lubiani 6-3, 7-5 and Japan's Junri Namigata 6-2, 6-1.
Lubiani and her New Zealand doubles partner, Leanne Baker, lost their first-round doubles match in Fukuoka to Australian Lauren Breadmore and American Tiffany Dabek 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In addition to winning the overall Auckland award, Erakovic was named junior girl player of the year.
Last year she won the junior Australian and US Open doubles titles and won two Victorian grasscourt titles this year.
She made the ideal start to her year by winning her first WTA tournament match, at the ASB Classic in Auckland in January and has barely looked back.
William Ward was named Auckland's junior boy player of the year.
