Aryna Sabalenka complicated things in the Wuhan Open final but ultimately managed to beat home favorite Zheng Qinwen 6-3 5-7 6-3 and complete a three-peat at the WTA 1000 tournament.
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Playing against a hometown favorite in front of a packed crowd, the top-seeded Belarusian appeared to be cruising toward a routine straight-set win after going up by a set and a break.
But then, the Belarusian started missing - the crowd got involved and the Paris Olympics gold medalist got fired up - and the final went three sets.
Sadly for Zheng and the home fans, she didn't manage to complete her comeback after suffering a collapse at the start of the decider and losing her serve a stunning four times during the final set.
Now, Sabalenka owns a 4-0 head-to-head against the player she also beat in this year's Australian Open final. Unlike in their previous meetings, the 22-year-old Chinese was at least able to take a set off the three-time Grand Slam champion this time.
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Before the pandemic, the 26-year-old won back-to-back Wuhan titles in 2018 and 2019. In what was the tournament's first edition in five years, the Belarusian continued her dominance and is now 17-0 lifetime in Wuhan.
Also, the current world No. 2 now has four titles in 2024 and overall 17 WTA titles.
How Sabalenka beat Zheng in the Wuhan final?
After earning and realizing the lone break points of the first set in the sixth game, the No. 1 seed also broke the Chinese in the third game of the second set.
But just after opening a lead of a set and a break, Sabalenka started spraying unforced errors, which allowed the home favorite to claim breaks in the fourth and eighth games and go 5-3 up.
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When serving for the set, Zheng showed some nerves and got broken back after delivering a double fault on a break point. However, the No. 5 seed was able to stay composed and break the top seed again in the 12th game when the Belarusian was serving to stay in the set.
However, all of those efforts turned out to be for nothing after the Chinese missed out on a game point in the first game and suffered back-to-back breaks.
In the rest of the final, Zheng managed to get two breaks but she also lost her serve two more time as Sabalenka still relatively routinely closed out the match.
