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Siniakova fired 27 winners and 10 aces to
prevail 6-2 3-6 6-3 but was made to work hard for the win after
Russian Sharapova rediscovered her rhythm midway through the
contest.
After losing the first set, Sharapova attacked Siniakova's serve
to seal an early break in the second set.
The five-times grand slam champion gave little away after that
and leveled the contest at one set apiece.
A stinging backhand down the line gave Siniakova a decisive
break in the final set and the sixth seed hung on to close out
the match in just under two hours.
Halep beat fellow Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-1 6-4 in one
hour 29 minutes to claim a second career final spot at Shenzhen.
The top seed broke Begu early in the contest to race into a 4-1
lead. Begu sent a forehand wide in a see-sawing sixth game as
Halep broke again and took the first set on serve.
Fourth seed Begu, seeking a first win over Halep at her sixth
attempt, fought back to lead 3-2 in the second set but Halep
eventually subdued the comeback attempt to seal victory.
"It was a tough match," Halep said in a courtside interview. "I
know she is a strong player and in the second set you could see
she was improving her game so it was a tougher battle.
"I think I was strong enough to stay there and hit the ball
stronger in the end because the energy (from Begu) was falling a
little bit. I came back, I served pretty well in the last game
and I'm pretty proud of my victory today, it was a tough one."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Amlan
Chakraborty and Ken Ferris)
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