Aryna Sabalenka defeats home favorite Zheng Qinwen to win third straight Wuhan Open title

By Matias Grez, CNN

(CNN) — Aryna Sabalenka secured her third straight Wuhan Open title with a hard-fought victory over Zheng Qinwen on Sunday.

In a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final, the world No. 2 defeated home favorite Zheng 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to pick up her second WTA 1000 title of the season and the seventh of her career.

Sabalenka, the first player to win the Wuhan Open three times, extends her unbeaten run at the tournament to 17-0 while improving to 4-0 in her head-to-head against Zheng.

“I felt like I just lost a little bit of focus and I let her come back in the match,” Sabalenka said, per the WTA. “I got a little bit frustrated there.

“It became a three-set match. Balls are getting heavier, it’s the third set, a bit emotional.”

Sabalenka has now won four titles in 2024, including the Australian Open and US Open, and five of her 17 career titles have come in China – an Open Era record, per the WTA.

Sabalenka said Wuhan “definitely feels like home.”

Zheng, the Paris 2024 gold medalist, was bidding to become just the second Chinese player to win a WTA 1000 event following Li Na’s success in Cincinnati back in 2012.

Despite the defeat, Zheng is the first Chinese player ever to make a WTA 1000 final on home soil and the 22-year-old was buoyed by taking a set off Sabalenka for the first time.

“She forced me to see some of the weaknesses in my tactics,” Zheng said, per the WTA. “I really look forward to training. I look forward to the next match against her.

“After this loss, I’m feeling excited because I am doing better each time. There’s more room for improvement. I hope that I can close the gap and also can overcome this challenge.”

Zheng’s run to the final in Wuhan pushes her up to world No. 7, with the top seven automatically qualifying for the year-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Sabalenka, meanwhile, will be hoping to overtake Iga Świątek and secure the year-end world No. 1 spot, with only 69 ranking points separating the top two players in the women’s game.

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