For the finals of the Wuhan Open between the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and the unseeded American player Alison Riske, Sabalenka was able to successfully defend her title with the 6-3, 3-6 and 6-1 victory over Riske. With this win, Sabalenka has become the first player of the tournament to have won the title bin back-to-back events.
In addition to this, Sabalenka is also the 2nd player of the tournament to have won the title of Wuhan Open two times, with the first one being Petra Kvitova.
In her post-match interview, Sabalenka said, “I cannot believe that I was able to defend this title successfully. I simply cannot believe that this has happened.”
The Belarusian, who was seeded 9th in this tournament, was able to win her first set by winning first 5 games out of total 6.
Riske was able to make a 2nd set rally as she withstood Sabalenka’s nine aces to make the match even but then Sabalenka took the control back to win the match.
Talking about the third set, Sabalenka said, “in the third set I came out saying in my mind, this is the final; now try to do everything you can. Only one more match to go so do your best. I was focusing on the game alone and on every point.”
In China, Sabalenka has won 3 of the four titles which include her winning the year’s Shenzhen Open also in which she also defeated Riske in 3 sets.
Despite losing the final, Riske will be able to make it to the world top 30 rankings for the first time in her career as she turns 29 years old.
Somewhere else at the Tashkent Open final, Alison Van Uytvanck was able to beat her finals’ opponent Sorana Cirstea. By 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4 in a 2 and half hours long match. With this title, Van Uytvanck has now won 2 titles of this season and this was the first time that she has won 2 titles in a season. With this finals’ win, Van Uytvanck now has a career final record of 4-0. Her first successful title defense was for the Budapest Open earlier in February.
As for Van Uytvanck’s 29 years old opponent Cirstea, she has previously won the 2 meetings against Van Uytvanck and was bidding to win her first Tour title with the last one being won back 11 years ago.
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