WUHAN, China — Aryna Sabalenka defeated No. 8 seed Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-3 on Friday, extending her winning streak in Wuhan to 20 matches and advancing to the semifinals of the WTA 1000-level tournament.
The US Open champion won the Wuhan Open title in 2018 and ’19 and returned to the Chinese city to win last year as well.
Sabalenka, ranked No. 1 in the match, broke Rybakina’s serve three times in the one-hour, 25-minute match to advance to her 11th semifinal of the season, waving and blowing kisses to the audience.
For third-seeded Coco Gauff, she advanced to the semifinals for the second consecutive year with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Laura Siegmund.
The American lost to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova in the last four of the China Open last week.
Gauff will next face either No. 2 ranked Iga Swiatek or Jasmine Paolini, who both came in late in the match.
Sabalenka will face sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula, who reached the third set in seven straight matches early Friday. She dropped the first set against Katerina Sinakova, but bounced back in the second set to win 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Pegula had wins over world No. 9 Ekaterina Alexandrova and fellow American Haley Baptiste when she needed seven match points to seal victory.
