Top seeds Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, Jasmine Paolini and Coco Gauff all successfully opened their campaigns at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open on Wednesday, but Emma Navarro, Barbora Krejcikova and Anna Kalinskaya were among those who failed to get themselves off the mark.
Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion and No 1 seed, won her 13th straight match in Wuhan, with a straight-sets 2nd-round defeat of Katerina Siniakova, 6-4 6-4, maintaining her undefeated record at the WTA 1000 event, while also picking up a milestone win in her exceptional 2024 season.
After her 1st-round bye, Sabalenka reclaimed her winning ways by toppling Siniakova, the WTA Doubles World No 1, in an hour and 34 minutes of play.
“Happy to be back in Wuhan,” Sabalenka said after her win. “Siniakova, who is fighting for every point, it’s really good that I was able to finish this match in two sets.”
Sabalenka saw her 4-2 lead in the opener slip away as Siniakova got back on serve in the next game, but the No 1 seed grabbed 2 set points at 5-4, and the Czech fired her 2nd double-fault of the set to cede the set.
Fierce forehands gave Sabalenka a quick 2-0 lead in the second, but she double-faulted that advantage away, and Siniakova again kept pace with the World No 2 throughout the set.
At 5-4, though, Sabalenka found some of her strongest returns to garner 2 match points, and, on her 2nd, closed out the win with a winning backhand, her 21st winner of the day to Siniakova’s 14.
Sabalenka also converted 4 of her 12 break points, while the Czech went 2-for-8.
Sabalenka also notched her 50th tour-level win of the year by beating Siniakova, only trailing Iga Swiatek in tour-level match-wins for the year.
The Belarusian is edging closer to top-ranked Swiatek in their showdown for the year-end World No 1 spot in the PIF WTA Singles Rankings.
“I love having this competition and I love seeing [Swiatek] in the draw,” Sabalenka said. “I love to, like, get to the finals and face her in the finals. It’s always great battles. I always enjoy fights against her.
“Hopefully we can play against each other there in the [WTA Finals Riyadh], put it into a fight for World No 1. That’s ideal. I’m trying to focus on myself and make sure that I play my best tennis and make sure I still have this opportunity to become World No.1 at the end of the year.”
This year’s Australian Open and US Open champion, Sabalenka is hoping to start a new run of victories as the season comes to a close, having had her 15-match winning streak snapped by Karolina Muchova in last week’s Beijing quarter-finals.
Next up, though, is Yulia Putintseva, the tricky Kazakh who upset 15th-seeded Donna Vekic, 6-4 3-6 6-4, earlier on Wednesday, her 3rd straight win over the Croatian.
Sabalenka and Putintseva have faced off only once before, and the Russian-born Kazakh won that match in straight sets back at the 2019 US Open.
4th-seeded Coco Gauff was an easy winner over Viktoriya Tomova at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open on Wednesday
Fresh after her title win in Beijing on Sunday, Coco Gauff kicked off her week in Wuhan with a routine 6-1 6-2 win over Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova to ease into the round of 16, where she will face 13th seed Marta Kostyuk next, after the Ukrainian advanced via a walkover when American Amanda Anisimova withdrew with a hip injury.
Gauff has a new coaching set-up, which debuted in Beijing and now consists of Matt Daly alongside Jean-Christophe Faurel, while her triumph there marked her first title since January, when she defended her WTA 250 ASB Classic crown in New Zealand.
It came after a challenging stretch, in which the 20-year old reached just one quarter-final in the nearly 4 months between Roland Garros and Beijing, including a disappointing 4th-round exit at the US Open, where she fell to fellow American Emma Navarro, a match highlighted by Gauff’s 19 double-faults and 60 unforced errors.
“People don’t realise, people have great moments in sports, and bad moments. It doesn’t mean anything,” Gauff said. “I took inspiration from A’ja Wilson. Back to back champions. People wanted them to three-peat. She’s kind of like, ‘It’s hard to stay winning all the time.’
“You need to go through losses to realise what you need to do to evolve. Tennis fans need to be more accepting of that.”
Jasmine Paolini, the 3rd seed, defeated local hope Yuan Yue in 2 sets, and, in the Last 16, will meet lucky loser Erika Andreeva, who upset her younger sister, Mirra, the 16th seed, in round 2
Jasmine Paolini, the No 3 seed from Italy, also advanced after a 6-4 6-3 win over China’s Yuan Yue, and will take on lucky loser Erika Andreeva, who dropped just 4 games against younger sister, Mirra.
Technically an upset as 17-year old Mirra is the 16th seed, Erica won the first meeting between the pair at any level, 6-3 6-1, to score her 2nd career Top 20 win.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Magdalena Frech levelled her head-to-head with 6th-seed Navarro at 2 wins apiece after taking their 2nd-round encounter, 6-4 3-6 6-3, her first win over a Top 10 player at the 16th attempt.
“It was a really great battle,” Frech said on court. “Such a tough match for me. I think I played one of the best matches of the year for me. I tried to stay calm for the two hours.”
The World No 27 had felt burned out midway through the year, spending the first 6 months of the season too focused on tennis, and becoming hypercritical of herself.
“After Wimbledon, I made some decisions with my team that we have to balance more the practices and tournaments and day offs,” Frech said. “It’s so important for the head and the mental game. I tried to be more open-minded for new things.
“I was focusing on different things, not just only tennis, but there is a life around. There are a lot of great things to do. So I tried to balance both things.”
It was as simple as letting herself take long walks or hit the shopping mall for some window shopping, while she and her coach, Andrzej Kobierski, have implemented a reward system that keeps things light and fun.
“In every city there are a lot of activities,” Frech said. “I love theme parks. I love games, so we play Yahtzee or poker before the matches. We’re actually practicing less because I’m playing a lot of matches. We’re just happy and enjoying this moment and it’s just clicking.
“My coach says, if you win this match, we can do this. If you win another match, we can do that. Small presents, small surprises.”
Having contemplated retirement, Frech is now enjoying a break-through season, and moves on to meet Beatriz Haddad Maia, the 9th-seeded Brazilian, who levelled her head-to-head with Russian Veronika Kudermetova at 2 wins apiece with a 6-1 6-4 win.
Both of Haddad Maia’s wins have come in the 2024 Asian swing, following her defeat of Kudermetova in the Seoul semi-finals.
Another Russian, Ekaterina Alexandrova, maintained her perfect record against her fellow countrywoman, Anna Kalinskaya, the 10th seed, with a 6-4 6-7(2) 6-1 upset win.
Alexandrova, who recovered after letting a second-set break lead slip to defeat Kalinskaya for the 6th time in 6 meetings, now meets Hailey Baptiste, an American qualifier, who pulled off an upset of her own, dispatching Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, the Czech 7th seed.
