Sabalenka dominates but Gauff struggles on serve at WTA Finals

At the WTA Finals, world no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff both had opposing serving results.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sabalenka, the reigning US Open champion, defeated Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-1.

The Belarusian, who won the year-end number one ranking earlier this week, outclassed the agile Paolini in 24 wins on top of 66% of first-served points.

However, Jessica Pegula, the other American, defeated French Open champion Gauff, who made 75 unforced errors and 17 double faults.

In Sunday’s second match of the Stefanie Graf Group, world number three Gauff suffered a 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2 defeat to fifth-ranked Pegula.

Sabalenka won her 60th game of the year and her 12th against a top-10 opponent when she defeated world number eight Paolini.

She has been at the top of the world rankings for 63 weeks, including 55 consecutive weeks since October of last year.

Sabalenka has won the title five times in a row, but she hasn’t qualified for the year-end Finals. In 2022, she came in second behind Caroline Garcia.

Paolini, who is the only player competing in both singles and doubles, was absolutely fantastic against the 29-year-old.

Before Sabalenka started winning six games in a row to end the first set and take a 4-0 lead into the second, the pair traded breaks in the first set.

Paolini got on the board and let Sabalenka score, but Paolini didn’t really threaten until the next game when big first serves gave her the lead.

Throughout a sluggish contest, both Pegula and Gauff struggled to maintain consistency.

In a first set that started with five consecutive breaks of serve, Pegula, who finished second in 2023, settled more quickly, holding on for a 4-2 lead before breaking Gauff for a fourth time.

Gauff broke at the start of the second, but she was unable to finish the set at 5-4 when she was re-broken on a double fault, and again at 6-5 after hitting three more double faults in a row.

However, she did a fantastic job of resetting to force a decisive set from the tie-break.

After breaking Gauff for a 3-point lead, the players exchanged breaks of serve once more, but Pegula would not be denied.

In a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory over Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand, won the doubles match.

After falling behind in the second set, Taylor Townsend and Katarina Siniakova defeated Luisa Stefani and Timea Babos 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.

Victoria Mboko, a 19-year-old Canadian, won the Hong Kong Open 7-5 6-7 (9-11) 6-2 to extend her remarkable year.