MATCH REPORT | 2024 Wuhan Open: No.2 seed Jessica Pegula straight sets slump to Wang Xinyu

Jessica Pegula is out of the 2024 Wuhan Open succumbing to a second defeat in their Head to Head to the rising Chinese star Wang Xinyu who pulled off a superb win over the US Open finalist.

It was a 6-3, 7-5 win for Xinyu to reach her first WTA 1000 Quarter-Final in front of her own fans no less. It is a second top 10 win for the 23-year-old who saw off Caroline Dolehide and Lucia Bronzetti in prior rounds to set up this tie with Pegula.

For Pegula, it is a poor return after the US Open. She lost last week to Paula Badosa who has been resurgent in recent months in the Last 16. But this week, she defeated Anastasia Potapova before falling to the home hero and now will head towards the Japanese portion of the Asian hard court swing.

Xinyu won in just over an hour and a half and now faces Ekaterina Alexandrova with that side of the draw now fully open. Anna Kalinskaya and Barbora Krejcikova lost early on in the tournament which saw Alexandrova breeze through the bottom section after defeating Hailey Baptiste who saw off the Wimbledon champion.

The first set saw Xinyu excel in the fine margins. She broke and held to go 3-1 up. She could've gone 4-1 up but Pegula stayed resolute in terms of the break threat at 3-2 down. But she lost her serve finally as Xinyu sealed the set emphatically putting her in all sorts of trouble.

While the second set was more of a game of cat and mouse as Pegula survived break chances both at 1-1 at 3-3. Xinyu thought she had Pegula at 5-3 up. But the American fought and sent it towards a potential tie-break only for Xinyu to break again to seal it when it looked to be heading for 6-6.