Osaka overwhelms Halep, Kasatkina beats Venus

Two 20-year-olds will contest the final at the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Sunday after unseeded Naomi Osaka and No.20 seed Daria Kasatkina defeated their respective rivals in Friday's semifinals.

Osaka continued a dream fortnight stunning world No.1 Simona Halep of Romania with the loss of just three games to reach the biggest final of her career, 6-3, 6-0.

In the other semifinal, Russian new star Kasatkina edged past former world number one Venus Williams of the United States, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in almost three hours.

"I was kind of nervous that entire game because it kept going back and forth," Osaka said after her win. "I'm really glad I was able to finish on my serve instead of having to break her or something like that."

"I didn't want to look too much on the other side of the court, because I felt then I would lose my focus," added Osaka on Halep's performance.

While Kasatkina was emotional after the stunning win. "Match like this, you're just speechless," an overjoyed Kasatkina said during her post-match press conference. "Even when I meet my coach and my brother after the match, I was not able to say anything. I was just, like, 'Aaaaah, okay, that was pretty nice.' Too many emotions and you cannot explain everything."

"Venus was playing really good, honestly," the Russian continued. "It was really tough match, yeah. I must, like, give her respect, because she's playing amazing, really."