Sabalenka makes an epic effort to end Coco Gauff’s streak

Aryna Sabalenkanumber two in the world, She qualified this Saturday for the final of the Wuhan Open (China) after defeating the American Coco Gauff 1-6, 6-4, 6-4that he had the match in hand after an impressive first set, but in the second set, when he was close to victory, he sank mentally.

The Belarusian is aiming for her third consecutive title in Wuhan, WTA 1000 category, today put himself within a short distance of the world number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek, if he wins the final to the winner of the other semifinal, who will face the Chinese Qinwen Zheng, fifth seed, along with his compatriot Xinyu Wang.

Gauff, fourth in the WTA rankings, swept Sabalenka in the first set, which she dispatched in 28 minutess, with two service breaks.

The Belarusian, undone on the court by his mistakes and Gauff’s success, went to the locker room to try to find himself again and stop his rival’s whirlwind. full of confidence after his victory at the Beijing Open last week.

This year’s Australian and United States Open champion was unable to recover and began the second set with a loss of serve.

At 4-2 in favor, Gauff was reeling and, with three double faults in one game, gave Sabalenka the wings, winning a contested second set that took twice as long as the first.

In the final round, after the American was the one to go to the locker room to reflect, the Belarusian’s forehand power ended up emotionally sinking Gauff, who was hampered by service errors, and saw Sabalenka on the chain of seven games in a row to go 3-0.

However, the 20-year-old from Florida had one last option to stay in the match at 4-4.but his inconsistency did not allow him to complete the comeback and in another double fault, he gave up the victory in Minsk after two and a half hours of fighting.