WUHAN, China (AP) — U.S. Open champion Aryna Sabalenka's winning streak at the Wuhan Open rolled on to 19 matches when she beat Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2 Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the WTA
1000-level tournament.
Top-ranked Sabalenka's streak includes winning titles at Wuhan in 2018, ‘19 and ’24.
No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek also advanced, winning 7-6 (2), 6-4 against Belinda Bencic, the former Olympic champion.
Swiatek improved to a 5-1 career record over Bencic, including a straight-set win in the Wimbledon semifinals in July.
Sabalenka will next play eighth-seeded Elena Rybakina, who won 6-3, 6-4 over Linda Noskova and is seeking to earn an entry to the WTA Finals event in Saudi Arabia.
Swiatek's quarterfinals opponent is Jasmine Paolini, who advanced through the round of 16 when Clara Tauson retired when trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-1.
Earlier, Jessica Pegula recovered from an early service break in the third set to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 and also advance to the final eight. Sixth-seeded Pegula, who lost in the China Open semifinals last week, leveled the deciding set at 2-2, then won four of the last five games for victory.
The win over No. 9 Alexandrova came a day after Pegula needed seven match points to beat fellow American Hailey Baptiste in the second round.
It was Pegula's sixth straight three-set match, and for the fifth time, she won.
“I can’t remember the last time I played two sets,” Pegula said. “But I’ve been competing really hard and I’ve been playing a lot of really good players. It was different conditions today with the roof closed and I think it took us a little while to get adjusted.”
In the late match, No. 3 Coco Gauff, coming off a semifinal loss to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova at the China Open last week, was due to face Zhang Shuai.
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
