It doesn’t get this good very often.

Saturday’s Dongfeng · Voyah Wuhan Open semifinals feature four Top 10 players, the first time that’s happened in any Hologic WTA Tour event in nearly two years, going back to the WTA Finals in Cancun.

Your contestants: 

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, a pristine 20-0 for her career in Wuhan.
No. 3 Coco Gauff, who has dropped only nine games in six sets.
No. 7 Jessica Pegula, the most recent singles qualifier for the PIF WTA Finals in Riyadh.
No. 8 Jasmine Paolini, coming off a remarkable win over Iga Swiatek, in which she dropped only three games and committed three unforced errors.

We make the case for each of the four semifinalists:

No. 3 seed Coco Gauff vs. No. 7 Jasmine Paolini (5 p.m. local time, 5 a.m. ET)

The case for Gauff

It’s happening again. Like the best teams in sport, the 21-year-old American is getting hot as the playoffs approach.

Gauff defeated Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-0 for her third straight one-sided win. She’s won eight of nine matches in Beijing and Wuhan and a total of 15 the past two years — more than any other woman.

No one in the 16-year history of WTA 1000s has ever reached five consecutive semifinals in China. Gauff, because of her disappointing 2025 results against Paolini, will be extremely motivated to take the next step.

Gauff won the first two meetings against Paolini, but is 0-for-3 this year with the losses coming in Stuttgart, Rome and Cincinnati. Gauff won the first set in Cincinnati, but Paolini came back to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

“I think I have a lot I can improve from that match in Cincinnati,” Gauff said. “I think I let it slip away from me. I felt like I was in control. I obviously didn’t serve well, but with the new confidence that I have in the serve, I think it can make a difference.”

Indeed, Gauff’s hiring of mechanics expert Gavin MacMillan has given her serve (and overall game) a visible boost. She’ll need to bring it against Paolini.

The case for Paolini

If you missed her forceful 6-1, 6-2 win over Swiatek, check out these remarkable highlights:

In the zone: Paolini defeats Swiatek for first time in seven meetings

Swiatek, uncharacteristically, was off balance and tentative for most of the match — a tribute to Paolini’s aggressiveness and ability to redirect those big groundstrokes from the six-time Grand Slam champion.

In a postmatch interview, Paolini was told she had only three unforced errors.

“Oh, really,” she said, bursting into laughter at that absurdly low number. “Today I stepped on court with clear ideas and what I have to do to try to make her be in difficulty. To beat Iga you have to play amazing. I managed to keep the level from the first shot to the last one.”

The biggest thing going for the Italian is the carrot of qualifying for singles at the year-end championship in Riyadh. Paolini is the only semifinalist yet to lock down a spot. There are 260 rankings points riding on this match and a win would create some valuable space between her and the other two players in the chase for the last singles spot, Elena Rybakina and Mirra Andreeva.

Given those three wins against Gauff earlier this year, Paolini will be playing with all kinds of confidence.

“She’s a fighter, a really mature player for the young age she has,” Paolini said of Gauff. “I love to listen to her interviews … for me she’s an inspiring person and player. She’s playing good. It’s a semifinal so of course it’s going to be tough.”

No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka vs. No. 6 Jessica Pegula (to follow)

The case for Sabalenka

How do you argue against perfection?

This is her fourth campaign in Wuhan — and she’s taken three titles and is two match-wins from capturing a fourth. Following a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 8 Elena Rybakina, it all adds up to that astonishing, aforementioned 20-0 record.

Only one player — Serena Williams, of course — won more consecutive matches in a WTA 1000 event. If Sabalenka beats Pegula, they’re tied at 21.

Over the past 35 years, only two women — the great rivals Monica Seles and Steffi Graf — won more consecutive matches out of the box at a single tournament.

How to put her consistent excellence in some sort of context? Consider that this is Sabalenka’s 18th tournament of the year — and her 11th semifinal. She’s the first woman since Serena (there’s that name again) to reach 11 semifinals as the World No. 1 in a single season.

The straightforward win over Rybakina was her 11th over a Top 10 player in 2025, equaling last year’s career mark. Pegula would be No. 12.

“We played so many tough matches, so many important matches, so many matches where huge things were on the table,” Sabalenka said. “I have a lot of great memories against Jessica. I love playing her, because she really pushes me to the next level.”

Sabalenka has won eight of 10 matches against Pegula, including the past four.

The case for Pegula

The pressure’s off.

Her 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over qualifier Katerina Siniakova in the quarterfinals was instrumental in locking down a singles spot in the WTA Finals for the fourth straight year.

At 31, Pegula is the oldest player left and the oldest woman to reach the semifinals in Beijing and Wuhan the same season. What’s remarkable is the way she’s doing it.

Pegula won a pair of three-set matches in Beijing (saving three match points against Emma Raducanu) before falling to Linda Noskova in the semifinals — in three sets. Naturally, all three of Pegula’s matches in Wuhan have gone the distance. She dropped the first set to Siniakova, but responded with a 23-minute, 6-0 second in which she lost only seven points.

Pegula and Madison Keys lead all women with 15 three-set match victories this year.

The funny thing? These slow conditions do not particularly suit Pegula’s game. Here’s why you have to consider her a serious threat to Sabalenka:

“I’m most pleased with, I think, my ability to adapt and with how I’ve been able to compete,” Pegula said. “It’s kind of slow, it’s humid. It’s not something that’s always been my favorite. I am definitely happy with the way that we’ve really problem-solved and tried to figure out, how do I play better in these two [Chinese] events.”

Sabalenka’s 8-2 head-to-head advantage might be a bit deceptive. Pegula won the first set of their recent US Open semifinal and the three previous matches featured four sets that Sabalenka managed to win 7-5.