Aryna Sabalenka and Qinwen Zheng will play in the final of the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open
Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) and Qinwen Zheng (China) will play in the final of the women’s tennis tournament WTA 1000 Wuhan Open.
The top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka overcame Coco Gauff after fantastic comeback by 2-1 (1:6, 6:4, 6:4), getting solid help from the American, who made an incredible 21 double faults in the match in the first semifinal of the program.
Coco Gauff won the first set convincingly and led 4:2 in the second set, but suffered a breakdown that allowed Aryna Sabalenka to take eight of the next nine games.
The American made another attempt to come back in the match and equalized the result at 4:4 in the third set, but another double fault in the tenth game ended her hopes of success.
It will be Aryna Sabalenka’s third final at the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, having never lost a match in the Chinese city, which has become most famous for the Covid-19 pandemic. For Coco Gauff, the defeat is the first after a series of nine consecutive victories.
There was much less intrigue in the second semi-final, in which, in an entirely Chinese clash, the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng defeated her compatriot Wang Xinyu by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).
Aryna Sabalenka and Qinwen Zheng played three matches against each other, all three of which have ended in straight sets for the world’s number two. Their last match was in the quarterfinals of the US Open, and earlier this year Aryna Sabalenka also won in the final of the Australian Open.
