Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka are set for a major showdown in Wuhan after routinely clinching semifinal tickets.
On Friday, the first on the court was the fourth-seeded American, who annihilated world No. 45 Magda Linette 6-0 6-4. Since the 20-year-old won Beijing before coming to Wuhan, she is now on a nine-match winning streak – and if she wins it all this week – she will capture back-to-back WTA 1000 titles for the first time in her career.
Coco Gauff© Wuhan Open/X – Fair Use
On the other side, the No. 1 seed gave no chance to Magdalena Frech, beating the 27th-ranked Pole 6-2 6-2.
When Gauff and Sabalenka meet in Wuhan, the American will try to push her winning run to 10 matches while the Belarusian will aim to stay undefeated at the Chinese tournament. In the past, the 26-year-old won back-to-back Wuhan titles in 2018 and 2019.
Also, this will be their first match since Sabalenka won their Australian Open semifinal earlier this year to improve to 4-3 in their head-to-head.
How Gauff, Sabalenka won their respective Wuhan semifinals?
The 2023 US Open champion stormed past the opening set after breaking Linette three times to complete a bagel. However, it should be noted that the Pole had break points in two separate games in the first set but didn’t convert.
After not winning a single game in the first set, Linette managed to save two break points in the opening game of the second set and be tied with Gauff through the first six games of the set.
However, the American didn’t allow any comebacks to happen as she broke Linette again in the seventh game before serving out for the match in the 10th game.
In the Sabalenka and Frech match, the No. 1 seed started with back-to-back breaks and a 4-0 lead before sealing the opener in the eighth game.
Aryna Sabalenka© Wuhan Open/X – Fair Use
In the second set, the Belarusian dropped her serve once but it was no issue since she managed to break the Pole three times and still get the job done in two sets.
Gauff and Sabalenka had a routine day at the office on Friday but that likely won’t be the face for either one of the two when they meet on Saturday.