World No 2 Aryna Sabalenka pulled off a dramatic fight-back to beat Coco Gauff and reach the final of the the WTA 1000 in China, where she will face home favourite Zheng Qinwen for her 3rd Wuhan Open title in as many appearances.
In a battle between the last two US Open champions, trailing 1-6, 2-4, Sabalenka was staring at defeat after being broken in 5 of her first 6 service games, but she then mustered 7 games in a row to turn the second set around, and took a 3-0 lead in the third, before Gauff battled back to level at 4-4.
With the 20-year old American serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Sabalenka converted on her 2nd match point to deliver the decisive blow by breaking for the second time in the set, winning the match, 1-6 6-4 6-4.
Sabalenka ended Gauff’s 9-match winning streak, with the World No 4 having won 6 matches en route to the China Open title last week ahead of her 3 wins in Wuhan.
“This definitely felt like one of the biggest matches of my career, crowd-wise, it’s like another Grand Slam final match,” Sabalenka said afterwards. “Coco is an incredible player. We have had a lot of tough battles in the past. She’s in great shape. I knew I had to work really hard to get the win.
“A couple of mistakes from her, and I got a little belief that I still had chances in this match. I’m really happy with this win. It’s a really important one.”
Gauff needed just 28 minutes to pocket the first set, outplaying the top seed in every department, and she opened up a 5-0 lead by holding Sabalenka to just 1 winner while holding her serve with ease.
They traded 5 breaks of serve to open the set, before Gauff notched the first hold to lead 4-2.
“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.”
Although Sabalenka found herself behind in the scoreline, she settled into a more aggressive game plan and turned the second set around, working the ball flat and wide to get Gauff on the run, and powering it into the open space.
She also saw Gauff’s serve, which had been impenetrable in the first set, start to break down as the American hit a season-high 21 double-faults in the match, including 9 in each of the second and third sets.
“I was playing that match thinking, like, ‘Well, girl, I feel you. I feel you like nobody else’. I know what she’s going through,” said the reigning US Open and Australian Open champion. “This is really difficult. This is really tough.
“But I know that if she’ll be able to overcome this serve situation, she already is one of the best players, but I’m pretty sure she’s going to be one of the greatest players.
“I mean, how did it feel? At some point in the second set when she was keep breaking me, I was like, ‘Okay, I still have chances on her serve’. I was just trying to put as much pressure on her as I can, so she would go even crazier on her serve.
“Yeah, I think she just dropped her level on her serve. I just felt, like, ‘Okay, I still have some chances in this match’. I was pushing myself so hard to put balls back on the other side as much as I could.”
With Gauff serving to stay in the set, Sabalenka struck a remarkable lunging forehand volley winner to earn her first point of the game, and coolly broke the American to take the match into a third.
After winning the last 4 games of the second set, Sabalenka headed into the decider with all the momentum, taking her streak to 7 consecutive games to lead 3-0, before Gauff stormed back from 4-1 down to level at 4-4, but a clinical hold stopped the American’s run of 3 games.
Sabalenka broke one final time, as Gauff struck her final double-fault of the night to end the 2-hour and 26-minute match.
It had looked like a run-away victory for Gauff on Saturday, as the American stormed out to her 6-1, 4-2 lead, but Sabalenka caught fire from there, and while the two finished with identical winners and unforced errors, 31 to 35, and both broke 6 times, the glaring difference between them was Sabalenka’s 2 aces to 2 double-faults, to Gauff’s 4 to 21.
Sabalenka, already a two-time champion in Wuhan, improved to 16-0 in the Chinese city, dating back to her debut in 2018.
