Australian teen star Destanee Aiava has overcome Japanese second seed Miyu Kato in straight sets to cement her place in the final of the ACT Claycourt International #1 on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The unseeded 17-year-old was far too powerful for Kato, prevailing 6-3 6-3 in just over an hour.<\/p>\n
Aiava is pushing for her first singles title in Canberra, having made two previous finals in the nation\u2019s capital, including her first Pro Tour final in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a goal of mine trying to get my first $60K title, especially playing on my favourite surface so I\u2019m feeling quite comfortable playing this week so hopefully I can do well tomorrow\u201d<\/p>\n
Just last month, Aiava was part of the Australian Fed cup team who defeated Ukraine, something which she really enjoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a good experience watching Ash [Barty] and Dasha [Gavrilova] play, it was really good supporting the team and to just experience the whole vibe with the team. We all support each other a lot, even when they\u2019re on tour we keep up to date so it\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aiava will face fifth seed Dalila Jakupovic in the final, after the Slovenian convincingly beat Brit Gabriella Taylor 6-2 6-2.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old Slovenian has been in great form this tournament, having won the doubles final on Friday with her Australian partner Priscilla Hon 6-4 4-6 10-7 against Miyu Kato and Makoto Ninomiya from Japan.<\/p>\n
The current World No. 171 is also yet to drop a set in the singles tournament and puts her form down to the playing surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Europe, the whole summer we have clay tournaments so I think it\u2019s a little bit of advantage for us, for European players than for Australians because it is mostly hard court tournaments here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI like clay so I was really happy to be back on the clay so I think this is one of the reasons also.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two finalists previously met in France last year, with Aiava coming out on top after a tough three set match.<\/p>\n
Aiava expects an equally hard match on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a tough one, I played her last year, I actually forgot how that match went but obviously she\u2019s been having a great week as well so it will be a tough one tomorrow so there\u2019s only one winner and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final will take place at 11.00am with entry with gold coin donation.<\/p>\n
Draws and order of play available here<\/a><\/p>\n Live scoring for \u00a0is available here<\/a><\/p>\n