Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka have been winning titles together all season. Australian Open. 🏆🏆 Cincinnati. 🏆🏆 US Open. 🏆🏆 Shanghai & Wuhan. 🏆🏆 Dominating the hard courts.
Sublime Sabalenka seals hat-trick silencing home hero Qinwen Zheng
Match ReportSunday, 13 October 2024 at 14:18
Aryna Sabalenka has won the last three iterations of the Wuhan Open in a row and shows no signs in letting up in her quest for the Year End No.1 spot. She saw off Qinwen Zheng in the final on Sunday morning in a superb win 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 Sabalenka was well known for many years for her prowess in this tournament mainly as a calling card before her success came in winning Grand Slam titles.
The last two weeks in losing to Karolina Muchova in the Quarter-Finals and now defeating Qinwen Zheng in the final in Beijing qand Wuhan are fairly ominous too for the US Open champion. She went through a similar streak heading into New York in losing matches before the final and then suddenly went on a hot streak so almost building herself back into the action.
Ahead of the WTA Finals in particular to come with all focus now on that, it is very much one that she will go into as the favourite retrospective to her rivals who have barely played. While Swiatek sits as World No.1 still, her days are numbered and Sabalenka has proven that.
In facing Qinwen, she also took on a vociferous home crowd who were trying their best to will their local hero over the line. While Qinwen wasn’t born in Wuhan, she trained there as a child before moving to Barcelona to train so it is very much the courts she grew up on.
Amid her battle to make it to Riyadh, she has performed in front of her home crowd while many of the top names have floundered and not performed. Emma Navarro of course being her main rival for that last spot has not won much since New York and a big week awaits in Ningbo for that final spot. Albeit it is one that Qinwen continues to make her own.
The opening set saw Qinwen hold her own in the early exchanges with both getting off to dominant starts. But Sabalenka edged the early exchanges and broke serve for 4-2 and headed towards the opening set fairly quickly. But the Chinese ace pushed back. In the second set, she recovered a break and had four break points to lead 4-2. But Sabalenka saved them all as Zheng held for 4-3.
Sabalenka then lost her serve potentially handing the impetus to her opponent or so we thought as the Belarusian hit back to make it 5-5 and it seemed like the second set was poised into a tie-break scenario.
Albeit Qinwen finally sealed a set against Sabalenka instead to force it into a final set. Sabalenka again seemed to be surging towards the win serving for it at 5-2 up. But she had to wait with Qinwen breaking back to prolong the tie. But finally Sabalenka sealed it. It is a fourth title of the year for Sabalenka and she looks certain for Year End No.1.
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- Fortunately, for Saba, Qinwen's first serve was missing today.
mandoist13-10-2024 - The title is indeed a tiny bit over the top :-)
AceOfBase12-10-2024 - Dacia gifting Emma a new 'car' is rather pathetic.mandoist12-10-2024
- It doesn't "shake up the tennis world". Though perhaps a warning of what's to come for part-timers playing the system! Sponsors are not forever... they expect something in return.mandoist12-10-2024
- If they can solve the Mr. Gauff problem (nasty remarks and loudmouth) they can squash Leylah's mouthy father. His obvious shout-outs as opponents are serving this season is more than obvious. Clearly easy to collect many of those moments on this season's videos. Perhaps Umps can start enforcing rules about vocal interference from the box!!mandoist12-10-2024
