Sabalenka sets up Gauff showdown in Wuhan semis

WUHAN: Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff will square off in the Wuhan Open semi-finals after claiming convincing victories on Friday.

The top-seeded Sabalenka produced a 6-2, 6-2 performance against Poland´s Magdalena Frech to record her 15th consecutive win in Wuhan, where she was a champion in 2018 and 2019.

Gauff, the number four seed, eased past Poland´s Magda Linette 6-0, 6-4 to extend her current winning streak to eight matches, having lifted the trophy at the China Open in Beijing last week.

One of those streaks will come to a halt on Friday when Sabalenka and Gauff meet for the eighth time. Gauff leads their head-to-head 4-3 but lost their most recent encounter at the Australian Open semi-finals in January. “I think the main thing is, once again, to focus on myself, focus on my footwork, go to the net, finish the point over there,” said Sabalenka of her game plan against Gauff.

“On this slow surface, you have to go there. You have to be brave enough and finish the point there. I think that´s the main plan. It worked really well in our last meeting, so I´ll just stick to the plan. I´ll try to put as much pressure as possible on her.” After getting off to a slow start in her previous round against Yulia Putintseva, Sabalenka came out firing in the quarter-finals, blasting 42 winners and just 14 unforced errors in her 83-minute victory over Frech.

The reigning Australian Open and US Open champion is not just chasing a three-peat in Wuhan -- she is also trying to close the gap on Iga Swiatek at the top of the rankings. Sabalenka will officially move up to the number one spot in the Race to the WTA Finals on Monday, but the year-end number one ranking will be decided at the season finale in Riyadh next month.

Earlier in the day, Olympic mixed doubles silver medallist Wang Xinyu -- in the first WTA 1000 quarter-final of her career -- battled for two hours and 50 minutes to overcome Russia´s Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(8/6).

Meanwhile, fifth-seeded Zheng Qinwen also secured passage to a second consecutive semi-final -- following Beijing last week -- after a hard-fought 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 against Italian third seed Jasmine Paolini.

She and Wang will face off in the semi-final, marking the first time two Chinese women have made it to the last-four stage at the same WTA 1000 tournament. “It means we have great players in China. Our base level is higher than before, so that´s a good thing,” said Zheng, who is an Olympic singles gold medallist. The 22-year-old said she would try to treat Wang “like a normal opponent”.