WUHAN – World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka snapped No. 4 Coco Gauff's nine-game winning streak and remains perfect at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open. In a battle between the last two US Open champions, Sabalenka, after a set and a loss, defeated the American 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals to reach her third consecutive Wuhan final.

Sabalenka, a two-time defending champion, improved to 16-0 in Wuhan since her debut in 2018.

Wuhan: Scores | schedule | Pulls

On Sunday, Sabalenka will be aiming for her fourth Hologic WTA title of the season and 17th overall. After winning the Australian Open in January, Sabalenka has been on a hot streak since the start of the Cincinnati Open in August. She has won 19 of her last 20 matches and reached the final or better in three of her last four tournaments, including wins in Cincinnati and the US Open. A win in Wuhan would give her two WTA 1000 titles in a single season for the first time in her career.

Sabalenka will face No. 7 Zheng Qinwen in the fight for the title. The Olympic champion continued her exemplary run through the Asian swing and reached her first WTA 1000 final, defeating Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-4 in the first all-Chinese WTA 1000 semifinal.

Game notes: At the start of the game, Gauff and Sabalenka had separated their last four hard court encounters. Gauff prevailed in the most notable showdown, the final of the US Open last fall. Sabalenka won their only meeting this year, winning in straight sets in the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

Gauff needed just 28 minutes to win the first set, outdoing the top seed in every way. She built a 5-0 lead by holding Sabalenka to just one winner and holding her serve with ease. The duo exchanged five breaks of serve to open the set before Gauff hit the first serve to take a 4-2 lead.

“Honestly, I think she just gave it her all in the first set,” Sabalenka said. “Whatever she did, everything flew in. Everything was so aggressive. I didn’t have many options.”

Turning point: Even though Sabalenka was behind in terms of results, the first six games of the set also showed solutions. She opted for a more aggressive game plan to turn the set around, playing the ball low and wide to get Gauff running and driving the ball through open space. She also saw Gauff's serve, which had been impenetrable in the first set, begin to fail. The American made a season-high of 21 double faults in this game.

“I played that game and I was like, well, girl, I feel you,” Sabalenka said, referring to her own serving problems two seasons ago. “I feel like you’re like no one else. I know what she's going through. This is really difficult. This is really hard. But I know that if she can overcome this serve situation, she is already one of the best players, but I'm pretty sure she will be one of the greatest players.

“I just tried to put as much pressure on her as possible to make her go even crazier on her serve.”

With the crowd's loud support behind her, Sabalenka fought back to defeat Gauff and level the set at 4-4. Under renewed pressure on serve, Sabalenka wiped away a break point with hard work from the baseline to take a 5-4 lead and sealed the game with a perfect drop shot winner.

Gauff's serve kept Sabalenka in the set, but Sabalenka hit a remarkable forehand volley to secure her first point of the match. She coolly beat the American and brought the game to the third point.

Gauff's last stand: After winning the last four games of the second set, Sabalenka entered the third with full momentum. Sabalenka extended her streak to seven consecutive games and led 3-0 in the final frame before Gauff came back from 4-1 down to make it 4-4 and equalize. But a clinical stop halted Gauff's three-game streak.

Sabalenka broke one last time when Gauff made her final double fault of the night, ending the match that lasted 2 hours and 26 minutes. Both players finished the game with 31 winners and 35 unforced errors.

Sabalenka's analysis: “She lost a little bit of speed in the second set,” Sabalenka said. “I was able to step in and put so much pressure on her. I was able to go to the net, score there and put even more pressure on them.”

“I think it was just a matter of who took the first shots, so who controlled the point. I think that changed in the second sentence. That also changed in the third sentence.”

Zheng is breaking new ground on home soil: Zheng backed up her quarterfinal victory over No. 3 seed Jasmine Paolini with a solid performance, edging past Wang in 1 hour and 39 minutes. She is the first Chinese player since Li Na to reach a WTA 1000 final and the first to do so in her hometown of Wuhan.

“Honestly, I have some expectations before this tournament. I'm also really looking forward to playing in Wuhan because it's my home. At the moment I physically had a bit of a low fever. It was funny because also at the China Open, the first round. “I also had a low fever. That was a bit of a shame.

“I was actually quite good mentally, but physically I'm not 100 percent. This is what happens. Anyway, I’ll do my best tomorrow, that’s what I can do.”

Zheng has now won 24 of her last 27 matches, a span that includes titles in Palermo and the Olympics, a second straight US Open quarterfinal, a semifinal in Beijing and now her fourth final of the season.