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Sabalenka defeats Gauff and reaches the Wuhan final

Sabalenka defeats Gauff and reaches the Wuhan final

The fourth-seeded American, who won in Beijing last week, looked set to extend her winning streak to 10 games when she took a 4-2 lead in the second game before Sabalenka began her comeback.

The Belarusian won seven games in a row, winning the second set 6-4 and building a 3-0 lead in the deciding set. There was another twist when Gauff overcame a 1:4 deficit in the decider and was able to level the semi-final at 4:4 in the third game.

Sabalenka then held serve for a 5-4 lead and managed to break the Gauff serve on the American’s 21st double fault of the day to make it 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 at Optics Valley International Tennis Center complete.

The win extends Sabalenka’s winning streak in Wuhan to 16 straight matches, with the Belarusian winning the title in 2018 and 2019 before the tournament was removed from the calendar due to the pandemic and the WTA’s decision not to host events in China.

The victory also levels the direct duel between the two players at 4:4, as the Belarusian has now won both duels in 2024.

For all her success, world No. 2 Sabalenka will not be the crowd’s favorite on Sunday as she is guaranteed to face a local player in the fight for the title as No. 5 seeds Qinwen Zheng and Xinyu Wang face off in the second semi-final compete. Final.

The Belarusian won in the previous rounds against Katerina Siniakova (6-4, 6-4), Kazakh Yulia Putintseva (1-6, 6-4, 6-0) and Poland’s Magdalena Frech (6-2, 6-2 ). the tournament.

Earlier in the week, No. 4 seed Gauff beat Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova (6-1, 6-2), No. 13 seed Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk (6-4, 6-1) and Poland’s Magda Linette (6- 0). , 6-4).

Wuhan WTA 1000, another semi-final game (Optics Valley International Tennis Center, hard, $3,221,715):

  • Qinwen Zheng vs. Xinyu Wang