Coco Gauff extended her winning streak in China to eight matches and advanced to the Wuhan Open quarterfinals Thursday with a 6-4, 6-1 win over 13th-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.
The fourth-seeded Gauff is trying to become only the second player to sweep the WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan in the same year, joining Caroline Garcia of France (2017).
“I’m really happy with how I played today,” Gauff said after her 61-minute win. “It was a pretty straightforward match. Marta and I always have some good battles. Today I was able to get through in straight sets.”
Gauff converted all five break chances, including three straight service breaks to finish the match. Up next is unseeded Magda Linette of Poland, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over No. 8 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus rallied to join Gauff in the final eight, completing a 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 comeback against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in just over 2 hours.
It is the 11th consecutive quarterfinal for Sabalenka. The two-time defending tournament champion improved her record in Wuhan to a perfect 14-0.
“In the first set, seems like whatever she would do would play well for her,” said Sabalenka, who piled up 14 unforced errors in the opening set. “I was struggling with strings. I was all over the place.
“I’m really glad that I was able to put myself together in the second set and things clicked.”
Putintseva broke Sabalenka’s serve three times in the first set and twice in the second before the U.S. Open champion won the last nine games of the match.
Sabalenka will take on Poland’s Magdalena Frech after her 6-3, 6-2 defeat of No. 9 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.
Gauff is the only American remaining in the field, with No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula falling 6-3, 7-5 against China’s Xinyu Wang. Wang faced only one break point and advanced to her first career WTA 1000 quarterfinal, where she will meet Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia. Alexandrova knocked out Pegula’s countrywoman Hailey Baptiste with a 6-1, 6-1 win in 63 minutes.
The other quarterfinal match pits No. 3 Jasmine Paolini of Italy and No. 5 Qinwen Zheng of China.
Paolini converted four of five break points in a 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Erika Andreeva. Zheng needed 2 hours and 29 minutes to put away Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.
–Field Level Media
