Riyadh, Nov. 7 -- Top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus beat defending champion Coco Gauff of the United States 7-6 (5), 6-2 to complete a clean sweep in the Steffi Graf group at the 2025 WTA Finals and advance to the semifinals as group winner.
Gauff had held a 6-5 edge in their head-to-head and won their most recent meeting in this year's French Open final in three sets, but Sabalenka overturned the trend with a strong finish to the opening set and a dominant second on Thursday.
The first set swung back and forth. Gauff broke serve in the opening game, Sabalenka broke back in the fourth, and Gauff regained the lead. Trailing 4-5, Sabalenka broke to level and forced a tiebreak.
In the tiebreak, Sabalenka won four straight points from 2-4 ...