By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 13, 2024
Aryna Sabalenka held off a late push from Zheng Qinwen to claim her third Wuhan title, and 17th overall.
Photo Source: TTC
After rallying to claim her first ever set against Aryna Sabalenka in Sunday’s Wuhan final, all the momentum appeared to be in Zheng Qinwen’s favor. The rising Chinese star had the home crowd fervently supporting her, and she had just rallied from a break down to storm through the middle stanza in a rematch of the first Grand Slam final of the 2024 WTA season.
Zheng's momentum would prove short-lived.
Steely Sabalenka turned the page on a disappointing middle set and raced to victory, claiming her third Wuhan title – and 17th overall – 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, in two hours and 40 minutes.
Sabalenka remains perfect in Wuhan, extending her unbeaten record to 17 victories, as she improves to 54-12 on the season, and 4-0 lifetime against Zheng. She stretches her run of victories against Top-10 players to six, and claims her fourth title of 2024.
"It sounds crazy," Sabalenka said, when told that she is the first player to ever win three consecutive titles at Wuhan. "This place definitely feels like home."
Credit to Zheng, who had never won a set in the pair’s three previous meetings, for making a match of it.
After taking the opener with relative ease, top-seeded Sabalenka continued her forward progress into set two, breaking to lead by a set and a break at 6-2, 2-1. It was then that Zheng, backed by an enthusiastic crowd inside the packed house in Wuhan, entered the fray.
The World No.7 broke to level the set at 2-2, and started to dictate the rallies more often.
Sabalenka would end up saving four break points to hold for 3-3, but Zheng was not done.
A quick hold for Zheng kept her in front at 4-3, and the Olympic gold medalist made her move in the next game, when a Sabalenka forehand sailed long, giving Zheng the game and a chance to serve to force a decider at 5-3.
She failed on her first opportunity, but stayed on course.
At 5-5 in the second set, Zheng ripped a backhand winner for 6-5 to put scoreboard pressure back on Sabalenka.
The breakthrough finally came moments later, as Sabalenka steered a crosscourt forehand wide by a few inches to give Zheng her first set against Sabalenka.
Undeterred, three-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka marched out to a 3-0 double-break lead in the final set then resisted a furious charge by Zheng, who rallied to within a single break twice.
In the end it was the World No.2 who stood tall. She converted her third championship point to lock up her third consecutive Wuhan title. Sabalenka has now won two WTA 1000 titles in the same season for the first time in her career. Add that to her two major titles in 2024, at the Australian and US Open, and we have a strong bid for 2024 WTA Player of the Year
With her win, Sabalenka pulls within 69 points of World No.1 Iga Swiatek in the WTA live rankings. Their battle for the year-end No.1 ranking will come down to this year's WTA Finals in Riyadh, which commence November 2.