Aryna Sabalenka Continues Her Winning Streak in Wuhan
US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka extended her impressive winning streak at the Wuhan Open to 19 matches after defeating Liudmila Samsonova with a score of 6-3, 6-2. This victory propelled her to the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 tournament. Sabalenka’s winning streak, currently at the top of the ranking, includes titles won in Wuhan in the years 2018, 2019, and 2024. Iga Swiatek, ranked second, also secured her place in the next round. Swiatek achieved a 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory against Belinda Bencic, who was previously an Olympic champion. This result marks Swiatek’s fifth victory over Bencic in six encounters, including a straight-sets win in the Wimbledon semifinals in July. In her next match, Sabalenka will face Elena Rybakina, who, seeded as number eight, won her match against Linda Noskova with a score of 6-3, 6-4. Rybakina seeks to secure her place in the WTA Finals event to be held in Saudi Arabia. Swiatek’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Jasmine Paolini, who advanced in the round of sixteen after Clara Tauson withdrew from the match, when Tauson was trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-1. In another notable match, Jessica Pegula managed to recover from an initial service break in the third set to defeat Ekaterina Alexandrova with a score of 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, securing her place in the quarterfinals. Pegula, who is the sixth seed and suffered a defeat in the China Open semifinals last week, managed to tie the decisive set at 2-2 and then won four of the last five games to secure the victory. This victory over ninth-ranked Alexandrova came a day after Pegula needed seven match points to defeat Hailey Baptiste in the second round. This was Pegula’s sixth consecutive three-set match, and the fifth time she emerged victorious.In the closing match, Coco Gauff, currently in third place, defeated Zhang Shuai with a score of 6-3, 6-2.I don’t remember the last time I played two sets. But I’ve been competing very hard and I’ve been playing against a lot of very good players. Today’s conditions were different with the roof closed, and I think it took us a while to adapt.
Jessica Pegula
