Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi will not be moving on to the Wuhan Open final.
The pairing lost 7-5, 6-2 to Americans Jessica Pegula and Asia Muhammad in the women’s doubles semifinals at the tennis tournament on Saturday in Wuhan, Hubei province, China.
Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Sutjiadi won 72.2 per cent of their first-serve points but failed to convert on all three of their break point opportunities.
The duo had defeated Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States 6-4, 6-4 in quarterfinal action on Friday to advance.
Pegula and Muhammad won 80 per cent of their first-serve points and broke on three of their five chances.
They will next face Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina and Russia’s Irina Khromacheva in Sunday’s final.
Sabalenka seeks 3rd straight Wuhan Open title
Top singles seed Aryna Sabalenka moved closer to her third consecutive championship in Wuhan after coming from a set down to defeat fourth-seeded American Coco Gauff 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday.
The semifinal win moved Sabalenka to 4-4 in her career meetings with Gauff. Sabalenka now is 16-0 on the hardcourts in Wuhan.
Next up for Sabalenka is seventh-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China, who will be the heavy crowd favourite on Sunday against Sabalenka, of Belarus. Zheng beat Xinyu Wang 6-3, 6-4 in the first all-Chinese semifinal at a WTA 1000 event.
Zheng, who won the Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer, needed 99 minutes to defeat Wang despite being a bit under the weather.
