Coco Gauff lost her serve five times today but still ended her three-match losing streak to Jasmine Paolini after beating the Italian 6-4 6-3 to progress into the Wuhan final.
In the opening five games, not a single break point was seen and Gauff led 3-2. The rest of the set was the exact opposite as the third-seeded American claimed breaks in the sixth, eighth and 10th games, but also lost her serve in the seventh and ninth games.
After the first set finished with five consecutive breaks, the struggles on serve continued at the start of the second set as Paolini three times broke Gauff, but the American three times got the break back. In the eighth game, the No. 3 seed registered her seventh break of the match to go 5-3 up before closing out a turbulent contest on her serve in the following game.
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In the Wuhan final, the American awaits the winner of the match between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula.
Gauff had a great reaction to snapping her losing streak to Paolini
Earlier this year, Paolini beat the American in Stuttgart, Rome and Cincinnati. But today, it was the 21-year-old who finished on the winning side. Overall, their head-to-head stands at 3-3.
Jasmine was leading 3-0 in the head-to-head record. How happy are you to win this high-intensity match? the on-court interviewer asked the Wuhan finalist, to which she responded: Well, its just 3-0 this year I think its even now."
By reaching the Wuhan final, 2024 Beijing champion Gauff also achieved a notable feat.
