Top seed Aryna Sabalenka moved closer to her third consecutive championship at the Wuhan Open after coming from a set down to defeat fourth-seeded Coco Gauff 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday.
The semifinal win moved Sabalenka to 4-4 in her career meetings with Gauff. Sabalenka now is 16-0 on the hardcourts in Wuhan.
Next up for Sabalenka is seventh-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China, who will be the heavy crowd favorite on Saturday against Sabalenka, of Belarus. Zheng beat Xinyu Wang 6-3, 6-4 in the first all-Chinese semifinal at a WTA 1000 event.
Sabalenka is the hot player, winning 19 of her past 20 matches. But Gauff appeared to have the upper hand on Saturday, winning the first set in just 28 minutes after jumping to a 5-0 lead after two service breaks.
“Honestly, I think in the first set she was just crushing it,” Sabalenka said. “Whatever she was doing, everything was flying in. Everything was so aggressive. I didn’t have much opportunities.”
But as the match went on, Gauff was bitten by the service bug that has plagued her this season, recording a season-high 21 double faults. Through her first 59 matches, Gauff had a WTA-high 357 double faults.
Sabalenka, who has faced her own issues with her serve in her career, said she sympathizes with Gauff.
“I was playing that match thinking, ‘Well, girl, I feel you,'” Sabalenka said. “I feel you like nobody else. I know what she’s going through. This is really difficult. This is really tough. But I know that if she’ll be able to overcome this serve situation. … I’m pretty sure she’s going to be one of the greatest players.”
In the second set, the players traded service breaks until Gauff served to go up 4-2, but Sabalenka won the final four games to even the match.
In the third set, Sabalenka gained a 3-0 lead before Gauff leveled the set at 4-4. With Gauff serving down 5-4 to stay in the match, she double-faulted on her final serve to hand Sabalenka the victory.
Zheng, who won the Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer, needed 99 minutes to defeat Wang despite being a bit under the weather.
“Honestly, before this tournament, I have some expectations. Also I’m really excited to play in Wuhan because it’s my home,” Zheng said. “Right now, physically I had a little bit low fever. Was funny because also in China Open, the first round I had low fever, too. That was little bit shame.
“Actually mentally I was quite good. It’s just physical I’m not 100 percent. That happens. Whatever, I will give my best [Sunday] is what I can do.”
–Field Level Media
