Pegula and Gauff Advance in the Wuhan Open; Osaka Surprised
Tennis player Jessica Pegula, after a match full of tension, managed to defeat Hailey Baptiste in a close tiebreak to advance in the Wuhan Open. Despite losing her serve twice in the third set, Pegula recovered and secured her victory in the tournament. Pegula, seeded sixth, defeated her American compatriot with a score of 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) on her seventh match point, securing her place in the third round. In her next challenge, Pegula will face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the ninth seed, who previously defeated Ann Li with a score of 7-6 (5), 6-2. Coco Gauff, ranked number 3, demonstrated her superiority by defeating Moyuka Uchijima with a resounding 6-1, 6-0 in just 51 minutes, thus advancing to the next round. On the other hand, the surprise of the tournament was the defeat of Naomi Osaka, eleventh seed, against Linda Noskova, who won with a score of 7-6 (2), 6-3. Noskova, 20 years old, who comes from being defeated by Anisimova in the final of the China Open, will now face Jaqueline Cristian or Elena Rybakina. Liudmila Samsonova came back to defeat Sofia Kenin with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. Meanwhile, Kateřina Siniaková, coming from the qualifying round, also secured her pass by defeating Maya Joint with a result of 6-3, 6-1. In the third round, Samsonova will face Aryna Sabalenka, the current US Open champion, who defeated Rebecca Sramkova with a score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Sabalenka, the world number one, has had an outstanding performance in Wuhan, with an impressive record of 18-0 and titles in 2018, 2019, and 2024.Sabalenka managed to break her opponent’s serve, ranked 68th, in the first game of the final set and secured the victory in almost two hours, converting her second match point. After Sramkova broke Sabalenka’s serve twice to win the first set, Sabalenka reacted with a break in the fourth game of the second set and managed a 4-1 lead, saving four break points in the seventh game. Karolina Muchova was forced to retire from her match against Magdalena Frech due to the heat and humidity, when she was losing 7-6 (1), 4-1.I knew that after that little break… it wouldn’t be so easy to get my rhythm back. I’m very happy that I found my game in the second set and stepped up, and I think I played really well. I’m super happy to be back. I’ve won a lot of tournaments in China. It feels like home in this stadium, and I really hope I can go all the way.
Aryna Sabalenka
