Naomi Broady upset the form book to make it through to Saturday’s semi-finals of the Aegon Manchester Trophy at The Northern Lawn Tennis Club.

Broady overcame top seed Kai-Chen Chang 6-3 6-4 using her serve to full effect on the grass of Centre Court.

The Stockport player and world number 123 appeared more assured than in her previous matches.

She will play Zarina Diyas for a place in the final.

She said: “I am really pleased, I was playing much better today than I was yesterday.

“I think it helped that it wasn’t as windy today. I served really well, I served a great game to finish off the match.

“She is a great player, I knew that it would be tough and I had to really stick to my tactics, mixed in lots of slices again, I think my serve made the difference today.”

Fellow Brit, Gabriella Taylor wasn’t able to overcome seventh seed Aleksandra Krunic in their quarter-final match-up, with the Serb taking victory 6-4 6-1.

Taylor, who has never previously reached the quarter-finals of a grass-court tournament, was gracious in defeat and took heart from her performance this week: “There was no pressure today, [Aleksandra] has been top 100 for quite a while and she’s obviously a very tough opponent and out there it was a tough match.

“I thought I had a lot of chances but I didn’t quite take them today but there are a lot of positives to take as well so I’m quite happy in a way with this week’s performance and I’m looking forward to next week.”

Krunic will now play Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka who defeated 18-year-old Anna Blinkova 7-6 5-7 6-3.

Kazakhstan’s Diyas completes the final four, accounting for 19-year-old Magdalena Frech 6-1 6-0.

Broady v Diyas is first on court on Saturday, followed by Krunic v Sabalenka.