Aryna Sabalenka maintained her unbeaten record at the Wuhan Open with her third title to close in on Iga Swiatek at the top of the rankings.
Sabalenka lifted the trophy on both her previous visits in 2018 and 2019 and was unbeatable again following the tournament’s return to the schedule this year.
The Belarusian defeated home favourite Zheng Qinwen 6-3 5-7 6-3 and is now only 69 points behind Swiatek in the rankings, setting up an enticing battle at the WTA Finals next month.
Zheng had failed to win a set in three previous meetings with Sabalenka, including in the final of the Australian Open this year, but this was a much tighter encounter.
The Chinese fifth seed fought back very strongly after going a set and a break down to lead 5-3 in the second, failed to serve it out but then broke Sabalenka for the third time to level the match.
It was Sabalenka on top at the start of the decider, though, and, despite Zheng’s attempts to came back, the top seed clinched victory on her third match point.
“This place definitely feels like home,” said Sabalenka. “I’ll do my best to keep holding this beautiful trophy in this beautiful place.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here