WUHAN – World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka scored a historic hat-trick at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open after defeating No. 7 Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the final on Sunday. Sabalenka, champion in 2018 and 2019, became the first woman to win three consecutive titles in Wuhan, extending her unbeaten streak at the tournament to 17-0.

Wuhan: Points | Order of play | Pulls

Wuhan is Sabalenka’s 17th Hologic WTA Tour title and her fifth on Chinese soil, the most by any player in the Open Era. In addition to her three titles in Wuhan, she also won in Shenzhen in 2019 and Zhuhai in 2019.

With Wuhan, Sabalenka won her fourth title of the year. This is the first time she has won multiple WTA 1000 titles in a single season. In the summer she won her sixth career WTA 1000 title at the Cincinnati Open.

Zheng will move up to No. 7 in the PIF race to the WTA Finals on Monday. The top 7 on the race leaderboard at the end of the regular season automatically qualify for the WTA Finals Riyadh. The 22-year-old is trying to become the first Chinese player since Li Na in 2013 to qualify for the tour’s season-ending championships.

With her win over Zheng, Sabalenka extended her best streak of top-10 wins to six. With nine wins each, she now has the most top 10 wins this season together with world number 1 Iga Swiatek.

In a rematch of the season’s first Grand Slam final, Sabalenka improved her unbeaten record against Zheng to 4-0. But unlike the previous three meetings, which were clearly one-sided for Sabalenka, Zheng made significant progress in her attempts to resolve the rivalry.

“First of all, I would say the conditions are probably a little better for them here,” Sabalenka said. “It’s a lot slower and the ball gets heavier. She has more to do on the court when the ball is slower.”

“Honestly, I felt like I just lost concentration a little bit and I let them come back into the game.”

How the game was won: Sabalenka needed just 38 minutes to win the opening set, taking advantage of Zheng’s 42 percent first serve rate. With Sabalenka hitting 76 percent of her vaunted first hit, the top seed only lost five points on her serve. She extended that lead to a set and a break after taking an early 2-1 lead in the second set.

But with the loud energy of the sellout crowd of 13,000 supporters, Zheng applied relentless pressure on Sabalenka’s serve to fight back and force a decider. Sabalenka was forced to show her best tennis to secure four break point chances and keep her lead at 3-3, but rather than feeling discouraged by her missed chance, Zheng felt encouraged. She won eight of the next ten points and edged out Sabalenka by a 5-3 margin.

Sabalenka came back, but Zheng remained adamant. She broke Sabalenka for the third time in the set and took the match into the third set.

Turning point: Zheng brought a tour-best 19-3 record in three-set games into the final and had won her last 10 deciding sets, but Sabalenka proved too tough in the final frame. She quickly built a double-break lead at 3-0. Zheng did well to close the gap and saved a break point to level the set at 3-3. There, Sabalenka fired a second serve past Zheng’s backhand and the Olympic champion went for glory, aiming for a winner down the line.

The ball landed just wide, Sabalenka held on to make it 4-2 and complete the 2:40 minute victory.

“It forced me to recognize some of the weaknesses in my tactics,” Zheng said. “I’m really looking forward to training. I’m looking forward to the next game against them.”

“After this defeat I’m excited because I feel better every time. There is more room for improvement. I hope that I can close the gap and overcome this challenge too.”

The fight for first place at the end of the year is on: With her regular season in the books, Sabalenka now looks ahead to the WTA Finals in Riyadh, where she will try to chase Swiatek for the year-end No. 1 ranking. Last year, Sabalenka went into the WTA finals ranked No. 1, but was ousted by Swiatek in the final match of the year.

“Right now the rankings are really close,” Sabalenka said. “Really nice to see. Of course I always say that it is one of the goals, but I prefer to focus on myself and just keep working hard. We’ll see after the final if I was good enough this season to become world No. 1.”