Timea Bacsinszky staged a superb comeback against Sara Errani in the China Open quarter-finals to move within one win of the world's top 10 and boost her hopes of reaching the WTA Finals.

Bacsinszky appeared set to make a hasty exit from the tournament in Beijing when she lost the first eight games to Errani on Friday.

However, the Swiss responded superbly by taking nine of the next 10 games, before holding her nerve to prevail in a tense final set.

Bacsinszky's 0-6 6-3 7-5 win sustains her bid to qualify for the season-ending showpiece in Singapore, while victory over sixth seed Ana Ivanovic in the last four would see the former break into the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time.

Ivanovic made it to the semi-finals of this competition for a second year in succession with a 6-3 7-5 triumph over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who was a break up in the second set but then dropped serve three times in a row.

Former French Open champion Ivanovic needs to beat Bacsinszky to have any chance of qualifying for the WTA Finals.

The other semi-final will feature Agnieszka Radwanska and Garbine Muguruza, the respective fourth and fifth seeds. 

Radwanska, winner of the China Open four years ago, made only four unforced errors in an impressive 6-1 6-4 victory over Angelique Kerber.

Having booked her place in Singapore on her birthday 24 hours earlier, Muguruza proved too strong for Bethanie Mattek-Sands, prevailing 6-1 7-5.