Aryna Sabalenka before the start of the competition in Riyadh, she was a favorite to win the entire tournament. In the group, she easily outplayed Qinwen Zheng and Jasmine Paoliniand later, being sure of winning the group and advancing, she lost to Yelena Rybakina. The situation was different for Coco Gauff, who after winning against Jessica Pegula and Iga Świątek lost to Barbora Krejcikova, which pushed her from first to second place.
Coco Gauff in the WTA Finals. What a match against Aryna Sabalenka
Of course, experts pointed out that Sabalenka would beat Gauff in the final match, but the beginning of the competition was extremely even. Both players lost their second serve and otherwise held their serve. The seventh and eighth games deserve recognition, as both women easily won to zero after great serves. In fact, this element of the game played a key role.
We didn't see a break until the 11th game and Gauff's serve. The American started great, but first she broke a nice smash, and then she hit the net after a long rally and ultimately lost. The world ranking leader served for the set, but she did not take advantage of this opportunity and a tie-break was needed.
Gauff started brilliantly at the most important moment. First, she took a 4-0 lead, and then she had as many as five set points at 6-1. Sabalenka saved as many as three of them and then threw an extremely important ball out of bounds, and the American won 7-4.
At the beginning of the second set, Sabalenka's great frustration was visible, as she got angry after every broken ball. She hit the court with her racket, waved her arms and cursed under her breath. Already in the third game she allowed her opponent to break the score to 1:2. However, it did not end there and the Belarusian also lost the next two games. In the sixth game on a pass from Gauff game The match lasted 12 minutes, and Sabalenka only used her eighth break point.
The leader of the world ranking worked hard to break her rival, but she herself lost another serve, to zero. So Gauff led 5-2 and served for the match. However, the 20-year-old did not play well and was defeated again. The ninth game turned out to be crucial, in which Gauff withstood the pressure and broke her opponent to win. The American won 6-3, and in the entire match 2-0 in one hour and 51 minutes.
In the final, the winner was, of course, Qinwen Zheng, who won against Barbora Krejcikova 6:3, 7:5 in 100 minutes in the first semifinal. The title match is scheduled for Saturday, November 9.
Aryna Sabalenka – Coco Gauff 6:7(4)