WUHAN:

Coco Gauff survived a battle of wills against Jasmine Paolini on Saturday to reach the Wuhan Open final for the first time in her career.

The American third seed had lost all three meetings she had with Paolini in 2025 but turned things around with a 6-4, 6-3 victory to book a final showdown with defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or sixth seed Jessica Pegula.

"It was 3-0 this year but I think our head-to-head is even now," said Gauff of her record against Italy's Paolini.

"I'm really happy with how I played today, it was tough, especially playing on the serve, but I did what I needed to do to get through."

In a semi-final dominated by the return, Gauff edged Paolini by the slimmest of margins.

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A run of 11 consecutive breaks of serve swung the momentum like a pendulum b

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