American Coco Goff beat Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 7:6 (4), 6:3 in the semifinals of the UTA final tennis tournament in Riyadh.
The match started very tight, both exchanged one break with the score 2:2. The 12th game turned out to be decisive. Previously, Sabalenka had broken serve and led 6:5, serving in the first part. However, Goff managed to take the Belarusian's serve and reach the tiebreak. In it, the American led 4:0, taking a big step to take the first set. Koff also hit 6:1 and five set points in a row, with Sabalenka winning three points in a row, but still losing 4:7.
In the second set, Goff broke even 2:1 and consolidated it. He once again broke his opponent's serve and led 4:1. Until the end of the match, each managed to break the other's serve, which Goff took advantage of and won with 6:3.
In the other semifinal, Olympic champion Qingwen Zheng beat Czech Barbora Krejcikova 6:3, 7:5. The 22-year-old Asian is ranked seventh in the world and has five UTA titles this season. He reached the final of the Australian Open earlier in the year.
The prize fund of the tournament in Riyadh is 15 million dollars. Last season, the best eight winner of the year was Polish woman Iga Swiontek.
/HB/