Sabalenka beats defending champion Gauff to join Pegula at WTA Finals – Tennis Now
By Richard Pagliaro Thursday, November 6, 2025
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty for WTA
fierce front runner Alina Sabalenka Before the start of the WTA Finals, the top spot at the end of the season had been locked in.
Today, the world No. 1 exudes a determined comeback character.
Breaking serve twice in the first set, Sabalenka fought back strongly to defeat the defending champion. Coco Gough She sealed her spot in the semifinals 7-6(5), 6-2 and knocked the third-seeded American out of Riyadh.
Top seed Sabalenka won the Steffi Graf group with a 3-0 record to end the round robin. Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula advanced to the semifinals today from the Steffi Graf group.
Stefanie Graf undefeated💪@ SabalenkaA Defeated Gauff 7-6, 6-2 and won a ticket to the semifinals.#WTAFinalsRiyadh pic.twitter.com/NCOllsRcuy
— WTA (@WTA) November 6, 2025
This is Sabalenka’s fourth consecutive WTA Finals semi-final, making her the first woman to reach the WTA Finals semi-finals four times in a row. Hall of Famer Maria Sharapova We did just that from 2004 to 2007, and at the end of the rainbow in Riyadh, big rewards are coming. If the top-ranked player wins the title undefeated, she will cash a championship check worth $5.2 million.
“I feel great,” Sabalenka told Tennis Channel’s Coco Vandeweghe in an on-court interview. “I feel like every year I play, I lose at least one game in the round robin.
“This year I came and I treated this match as a regular match. I went on the court, I tried to fight, I tried to play my best tennis and I’m very happy to win in straight sets.”
Embed from Getty Images
Earlier, fifth seed Pegula was eliminated Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-3 in 63 minutes. Paolini, the Rome champion, was troubled by an apparent cold and was not typically active throughout the tournament and was winless in the round robin.
Pegula, a 2023 finalist, reached the WTA Finals semifinals for the second time in the past three years. It was Pegula’s 26th career top-10 finish, and she’s aiming for her seventh final of the season.
Sabalenka sweeps Gauff, day two Amanda Anisimova defeated Iga Swiatek In a thrilling three-set match that means both former champions will retire, a new WTA Finals champion will be crowned on Saturday.
It also means that two of the final four – Anisimova and Pegula – are Americans.
Sabalenka will face fourth seed Anisimova in tomorrow’s semi-finals, a rematch of the Belarusian’s US Open final win. Sabalenka wins 19th consecutive deciding game, stops Aminisova Two months ago, she successfully defended her US Open title 6-3, 7-6(3) at Flushing Meadows and won her fourth Grand Slam title.
Overall, Anisimova has a 6-4 record against Sabalenka, including a three-set victory in the Wimbledon semifinals in July.
“We have a great history – that’s a fact – there have always been great fights,” Sabalenka said. “I’m excited to face her. My mentality is to go out there and do my best, do whatever it takes and go for the dream.”
The second semi-final pitted the undefeated Rybakina against Pegula. Rybakina, like Sabalenka, will receive a championship check of $5.2 million if she can make it through the semifinals and finals.
Pegula, 31, has won three of four meetings with Rybakina, including a 7-5, 6-2 win in their most recent meeting at the 2023 WTA Finals in windy Mexico.
The subtext of today’s 12th meeting between Gauff and Sabalenka is that the 21-year-old American defeated the Belarusian in the two most important finals. Gauff overcame Sabalenka’s 70 errors in the French Open final on Saturday in windy Paris, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4. A few years ago, Goff and the fans at Flushing Meadows defeated Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the 2023 U.S. Open final.
Additionally, biomechanics coach Gavin MacMillan, who helped Sabalenka correct her once-wayward serving issues, now sits in Gauff’s coaching chair after joining her team a week before the U.S. Open.
Knowing all about the sometimes volatile Belarusian, you can bet that MacMillan advised Goff to get as many extra balls out of the power player as possible.
Sabalenka was overly excited from the start, committing seven unforced errors and letting out a long, exaggerated wail after Gauff broke serve to take a 2-0 lead.
The two-time U.S. Open champion equalized after four games, but Gauff’s forehand withstood Sabalenka’s fierce force and broke serve again to make it 3-2, before hitting an ace to help her consolidate the break and lead 4-2.
Throughout the set, Gauff hit almost the same kick serve she had against Paolini on Tuesday, and the result was much cleaner, albeit slower, than the 17 double faults she hit against Pegula in the round-robin opener.
In the first set, Gauff was leading 5-4, 30-0, with two points to go, but he dropped back not to try to win the match but not to lose a point.
Goff’s silence rewarded Sabalenka’s aggression.
With the tie at 30, Sabalenka ran down the net to hit the ball, Goff lobbed the ball, and then hit a backhand volley winner face to face in front of the net to gain a break point. For the second time in the match, Gauff hit a lob – a sign that her forehand confidence might be waning – but Sabalenka knocked it down, shoveled the forehand pass to the baseline and yelled “Come on!” to tie the game at 5.
After the match, Sabalenka admitted that when she was only two points away from losing the first set, her mind was already on the second set.
“To be honest, I was already preparing for the second set,” Sabalenka said. “I just wanted to find the rhythm of her serve. I just wanted to fight, you know.
“And then somehow I was able to turn it around. I think that match gave me that extra energy and belief that I could still win the set, and yes, I did.”
The resurgent Sabalenka held serve for the second time in a row and scored on her tenth consecutive serve, taking the first lead of the day at 6-5.
Gauff regrouped and confidently chased the score to 15 points, forcing the first set into a decider.
Although Sabalenka was the more outgoing player and looked very tired in the pre-set match, the decider queen lived up to her expectations in overtime, coming back from a break of serve to trail 2-4.
Sabalenka’s routine backhand volley nearly missed the top of the net, giving Gauff an early 3-1 lead. Although she extended her lead to 4-2, the defending champion collapsed with an untimely error. Gauff hit her signature shot – a two-handed backhand – and then the Belarusian used a big serve to tie the match at 4.
Gauff’s serve and forehand were solid for much of the set. At 4-5, Gauff committed the first double fault of the day and faced a double check.
The top seed shone on a wide serve, creating vast space for a gorgeous forehand winner to open the 55-minute set.
Leave it all in court 😤@ SabalenkaA Defeated Gauff 7-6(5) to win the first set.#WTAFinalsRiyadh pic.twitter.com/8PANYPuKKr
— WTA (@WTA) November 6, 2025
Sabalenka maintained her composure, winning every break of serve to improve her record to 22-2 in the 2025 decider.
Gauff knew she needed to win in straight sets to advance to the semifinals, so her game lost its edge and her forehand went wild in the second set.
Sabalenka scored 12 of the first 15 points of the second set to extend her 3-0 lead to 4-0.
Gauff got on base in the fifth game and then fought back with a 40-love break to lead 2-4.
That was the last stop for the defending champion. After Gauff’s forehand fumbled – she returned a serve too late once and even missed the doubles sideline – Sabalenka converted her fifth of six break points on the day to go up 5-2.
While Gauff has shown signs of improvement on both her serve and forehand to continue her evolution as a champion, she must become comfortable transferring spin on her serve and mixing her kicks with slider serves, especially on the deuce side. The shot completely restrained the 5-foot-4 Paolini, but Sabalenka stood half a foot taller and once she returned serve, she hit some deep shots, winning 11 of Gauff’s 18 points on her second serve.
On the forehand, ideally you’d like to see Gauff gradually change her grip from a full Western to a semi-Western grip – which she already changes when volleying at the net – but that takes time. Two immediate improvements that Gauff could make are to stop her tendency to jump into a flying forehand, which usually results in her opening up and spraying it on the stroke of the ball, and trying to attack the center court quickly with a topspin forehand, whereas now she sometimes chooses to hit a forehand slice as a close shot, but usually not a finishing shot.
Sabalenka, for her part, proved once again today that she can settle down and trust her shot when she’s on the verge of collapsing herself. When Sabalenka patiently hones her power and sets up a forehand with a wide serve, as she did in today’s match, she remains a devastating force.
