Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus celebrates during the women's singles final between Alison Riske of the United States and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus at the 2019 WTA Wuhan Open tennis tournament in Wuhan of central China's Hubei Province, on Sept. 28, 2019. (Xinhua/Xiong Qi)
By sportswriters Spencer Musick and Michael Butterworth
WUHAN, China, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The final pairings of the 2019 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open are set, and Arnya Sabalenka has already made history on two fronts: she is the first reigning champ to make two consecutive appearances in the final, and the first player to ever appear in both the singles and doubles finals.
Sabalenka started off her day on center court by powering to a straight-set 7-5, 6-4 victory over current world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty.
It was a match decided less by Sabalenka's raw power on serve and more on her decisive ability to control key shots on break points.
Barty double-faulted her first service, handing Sabalenka momentum which she used break her opponent out of the gate. But Barty looked to have gotten into form after that, firing off two aces on the way to serving out to 2-3 and then breaking Sabalenka after an extended fight at deuce with controlled, consistent forehand groundstrokes to go 3-all.
Both players held serve to 5-all, but Sabalenka drew blood with some spectacular forehand shooting down the line that would leave Barty either powerless to answer or force her to send her returns deep. Sabalenka broke again to go one up and served out the first set despite Barty bringing her to break point twice.
The second set started with a battle of attrition at 1-all that saw Sabalenka brought to break point twice (Barty was helped by a series of forehand unforced errors from the Belarussian) but she managed to hold on. The two held their services all the way to 4-all, but Barty called a three-minute medical timeout along the way for a calf issue.
Sabalenka went on to get the only break of the second set with a crowd pleasing-drop shot at the net to go up 5-4, giving her the chance to serve for the match and seal the deal with some spectacular shooting off the backhand side.
"I think overall Aryna was the better player today. She was able to control her service games a lot better. I felt at times I was hanging on a little bit. I had to take a lot of risks today to try to manage where I was at," Barty said after the match.
The next semifinal match saw American Alison Riske (current world No. 35) defeat no. 5 Petra Kvitova, power into the first Premier-level final of her career in two hotly contested sets: 7-5, 7-5.
Neither player gave much in the opening set. Kvitova was taken to break point a total of six times in her first service game, but would hold on and go to break first to go up 3-2. Riske would respond with a break of her own, and things tightened up from there, with both players serving out to 6-5 for the American.
Kvitova then began coughing up a series of unforced errors that left her visibly frustrated. A forehand volley found nothing but net, handing Riske a decisive break point that she would capitalize on to seal the opener.
The second set saw more unforced errors from the Czech, who surrendered a 5-4 lead with more forehand stumbles. She had 45 unforced to only 21 for her opponent, who ignited an all-court volleying push that Kvitova was unable to answer, closing out the second set in exactly one hour.
"I felt like if I kept putting myself in the position to break and put pressure on her, especially if I had any look on second serves, to kind of take advantage," Riske said in the post-match press conference.
"Yeah, it was a battle. But I really enjoyed every bit of it. It was a lot of fun for me," she continued.
Earlier in the day on center court, China's Duan Yingying and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia eased into the final, defeating China's Yang Zhaoxuan and Makoto Ninomiya of Japan with a breezy 6-3, 6-1 victory.
The No. 8 seeds raced into a 2-0 lead out of the gate in the first set, eventually breaking Yang/Ninomiya's serve once more and serving up three aces to close out a 6-3 set win.
Undeterred, Yang/Ninomiya made the best possible start to the second set, breaking Duan/Kudermetova in the very first game.
However, that was as good as it got for the tournament's sole remaining unseeded pair, as Duan/Kudermetova won the next six games without reply to seal a straight-sets win in exactly one hour.
Duan/Kudermetova will face Elise Mertens and her partner Sabalenka in the final, who vanquished defending champions Anna-Lena Groenfeld/Demi Schuurs in a 6-2, 6-1 rout in just over one hour.
Mertens/Sabalenka relied on their combined ability to hit quick winners to wrestle control of the match of their opponents at key moments. They logged 76 percent first service shooting in the first set, breaking their opponents twice along the way to a comfortable win that never looked in doubt.
Despite being brought to break point on all but one of their service games in the second, Mertens/Sabalenka kept the momentum on their side, handing their opponents a breadstick set to power into the final.
