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Maria Sharapova on brink of landing first title since drugs ban after making Tianjin Open final

Former world No 1 and five-time Major winner saw off Peng Shuai 6-3 6-1 to be within touching distance of first win since May 2015

MARIA SHARAPOVA has reached her first WTA final since returning from a 15-month drugs ban.

The five-time Grand Slam winner crushed Peng Shuai 6-3 6-1 at the Tianjin Open.

 Maria Sharapova is through to her first final since returning from a drugs ban
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Maria Sharapova is through to her first final since returning from a drugs banCredit: AFP

The 30-year-old Russian, playing on a wildcard in the seventh tournament of her comeback, hit top gear as she swept aside the Chinese third seed in one hour, 18 minutes.

In front of a large home crowd, a businesslike Sharapova broke four times and conceded zero breaks of her own before wrapping up the semi-final with a clinical crosscourt forehand.

In Sunday's final -- her first since she won the Italian Open in May 2015 -- she will be the red-hot favourite against 102nd-ranked Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who beat qualifier Sara Errani 6-1, 6-3.

Sharapova has had a stop-start and injury-hit season since her controversial return at Stuttgart in April, following her ban for using the banned substance meldonium.

 The Russian is a wildcard entry in the competition
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The Russian is a wildcard entry in the competitionCredit: AFP
 Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium
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Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldoniumCredit: AFP

Sharapova reached the Stuttgart semis but she retired in the Italian Open second round and also withdrew from her second-round match at Stanford.

Sharapova missed Wimbledon qualifying because of injury and she wasn't offered a wildcard to the French Open, but she reached the US Open last 16 on her return to Grand Slam tennis.

She has cut a swathe through the limited draw in Tianjin, beating Irina-Camelia Begu, Magda Linette, Stefanie Voegele and Peng without dropping a set.

Sharapova, one of the world's highest-earning female athletes, will now expect to win her 36th career title and end a trophy drought of more than two years, the longest since her debut win in 2003.

 Peng Shuai fell in straight sets to Maria Sharapova
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Peng Shuai fell in straight sets to Maria SharapovaCredit: AFP

By contrast Sabalenka, 19, is gunning for her first WTA title after a run to the Tianjin final that included wins over China's Duan Ying-Ying and Lin Zhu.

Sharapova, currently ranked 86th, has also been handed a wildcard for next week's Kremlin Cup in Moscow, which she will play for the first time since 2007.

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