Osaka was forced to double up after persistent showers had washed out her quarter-final against Yulia Putintseva on Friday and the top seed outclassed her Kazakh opponent 6-4 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals in Osaka, Japan. Up next for the twice Grand Slam champion is Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who ended Angelique Kerber's resurgence with a 6-3 6-3 victory. "It's been kind of rough like the past couple of months so I'm really glad that I made it to the final," Osaka, who sacked coach Jermaine Jenkins after a disappointing U.S. Open title defense, told reporters.