WUHAN — World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka completed a historic three-peat at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open after defeating No.7 Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the final on Sunday. A champion in 2018 and 2019, Sabalenka became the first woman to win three consecutive titles at Wuhan, running her unbeaten streak at the tournament to 17-0.
Wuhan: Scores | Order of Play | Draws
Wuhan is Sabalenka’s 17th Hologic WTA Tour title and her fifth on Chinese soil, the most of any player in the Open Era. She also reigned supreme at 2019 Shenzhen and 2019 Zhuhai, in addition to her three titles in Wuhan.
With Wuhan, Sabalenka has picked up her fourth title of the year. This marks the first time she has captured multiple WTA 1000 titles in a single season. She won her sixth career WTA 1000 title over the summer at the Cincinnati Open.
Zheng will rise to No.7 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals on Monday. The Top 7 on the Race Leaderboard at the end of the regular season will automatically qualify for the WTA Finals Riyadh. The 22-year-old is trying to become the first Chinese player to qualify for the tour’s season-ending championships since Li Na in 2013.
With her win over Zheng, Sabalenka extended her career-best streak of Top 10 victories to six. She is now tied with World No.1 Iga Swiatek for the most Top 10 wins this season, with each notching nine.
In a rematch of the first Grand Slam final of the season, Sabalenka improved her unbeaten record against Zheng to 4-0. But in contrast to their previous three meetings, which were decidedly one-way traffic for Sabalenka, Zheng made significant progress in her attempts to solve the rivalry.
“First of all I would say the conditions are probably a little bit better for her here,” Sabalenka said. “It’s much slower and the ball’s getting heavier. She has more things to do on the court when it’s slower.
“Honestly, I felt like I just lost little bit focus and I let her come back in the match. I got a little bit frustrated there. It became a three-set match. Balls are getting heavier, it’s third set, a bit emotional.”
How the match was won: Sabalenka needed just 38 minutes to pocket the opening set, taking advantage of Zheng’s 42 percent first-serve percentage. With Sabalenka putting in 76 percent of her vaunted first strike, the top seed lost just five points on her serve. She extended that lead to a set and a break after gaining an early 2-1 lead in the second set.
But with the vocal energy from the sold-out crowd of 13,000 partisans roaring, Zheng kept relentless pressure on Sabalenka’s serve to claw her way back and force a decider. Sabalenka was forced to come up with her best tennis to save four break point chances to hold to 3-3, but instead of feeling deflated by her missed chance, Zheng found herself encouraged. She proceeded to win eight of the next 10 points to break Sabalenka for a 5-3 lead.
Sabalenka broke back, but Zheng stayed relentless. She broke Sabalenka for the third time in the set to take the match to a third set.
Turning point: Zheng brought a tour-best 19-3 record in three-set matches into the final and had won her last 10 deciding sets, but Sabalenka proved too tough in the final frame. She built a quick double-break lead at 3-0. Zheng did well to close the gap and held a break point to level the set at 3-3. There, Sabalenka kicked a second-serve wide to Zheng’s backhand and the Olympic champion went for glory, aiming to fire a return winner down the line.
The ball landed just wide, Sabalenka held to 4-2 and closed out the 2-hour and 40-minute win.
“She forced me to see some of the weaknesses in my tactics,” Zheng said. “I really look forward to training. I look forward to the next match against her.
“After this loss, I’m feeling excited because I am doing better each time. There’s more room for improvement. I hope that I can close the gap and also can overcome this challenge.”
The battle for year-end No.1 is on: With her regular season in the books, Sabalenka now looks ahead to the WTA Finals Riyadh, where she will look to chase down Swiatek for the year-end No.1 ranking. Last year, Sabalenka went into the WTA Finals with the No.1 ranking, only to be nipped by Swiatek in the final match of the year.
“Really tight ranking right now,” Sabalenka said. “Really nice to see. I always say of course it’s one of the goals, but I prefer focus on myself and just keep working hard. We’ll see after the Finals if I was good enough this season to become World No.1.”
