Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff will play each other in Saturday’s semi-finals at the Wuhan Open in China after comfortable straight-set wins in Friday’s quarter-finals.
World No 1 Sabalenka and No 4-ranked Gauff will compete for a place in Sunday’s Wuhan final, with the winner to face either Wang Xinyu or Qinwen Zheng/Jasmine Paolini.
Gauff claimed her eighth WTA win in a row and 50th of the year with a 6-0 6-4 triumph over Poland’s Magda Linette as the 20-year-old American chases back-to-back tournament successes after victory at last week’s China Open in Beijing.
While Gauff won the first set without losing a game, the American had to save four break points on her serve in order to do so, with her returns ultimately proving too strong for Linette at the decisive moments.
“I’m really happy with how I played,” said Gauff, who overcame making eight double-faults in the match.
“Obviously a smooth first set. Had chances to maybe close it out in the 5-3 game in the second, but happy I was able to close it out on my serve.”
Sabalenka later cruised through to her third successive Wuhan semi-final by beating Polish opponent Magdalena Frech 6-2 6-2 in a one-sided match in which the Belarusian delivered 42 winners.
The 26-year-old won the previous two editions of the tournament, in 2018 and 2019, prior to its five-year absence from the calendar after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sabalenka vs Gauff for a place in Sunday’s final
Gauff holds a 4-3 advantage in the pair’s previous meetings, famously winning the 2023 US Open final before Sabalenka gained her revenge in this year’s Australian Open semis.
“We’ve played a lot of matches in the past, a lot of great battles,” said Sabalenka. “I’m really excited.”
Ensuring there will be at least one Chinese player in the other semi-final, Wang Xinyu fought back from losing the first set to beat world No 33 Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6 7-5 7-6 (8-6).
Qinwen Zheng will now aim to make it an all-Chinese encounter in the last four by beating Italian third seed Jasmine Paolini in Friday’s final quarter-final.
What’s coming up on Sky Sports Tennis in October?
- Shanghai Masters – ATP 1000 (October 2-13)
- Wuhan Open – WTA 1000 (October 7-13)
- Almaty Open, Kazakhstan – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- Stockholm Open, Sweden – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- European Open, Antwerp – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- Japan Open, Osaka – WTA 250 (October 14-20)
- Ningbo Open, China – WTA 500 (October 14-20)
- Erste Bank Open, Vienna – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
- Swiss Indoors, Basel – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
- Guangzhou Open, China – WTA 250 (October 21-27)
- Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis, Tokyo – WTA 500 (October 21-27)
Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TVstreaming service NOW and the Sky Sports appgiving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.
