PALERMO, Italy – Top seed Kiki Bertens will play for her third title of the season at the Ladies’ Open Palermo.

The World No.5 ended the breakthrough run of 21-year-old Spaniard Paula Badosa with a 6-1, 7-5 win in Saturday’s semifinals to advance to her fourth final of the season against No.8 seed Jil Teichmann.

Bertens needed eight match points to ultimately see off the rising Spaniard, playing her first WTA semifinal, who twice rallied from a break down in a tight second set.

Nonetheless, the Dutch ace held on in a titantic final game, which saw her lose a 40-0 lead, save a break point and be taken to deuce six times, before ultimately wrapping up the match in one hour and 37 minutes.

“I’m getting used to it a little bit more, but it’s still a challenge for me to come somewhere…where’s [there’s] pressure for me to do well, and also from myself. I’m just glad that I could handle the pressure and I’m through to the final here,” Bertens said.

“Of course, you’re like, ‘Am I going to lose?’ [when match points go by], but every point I was just going to fight for it. I think she played some unbelievable shots when she was match points down, so credit to her as well, and I was just going to keep going.”