Wuhan Open Round-Up: Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka storm through in contrasting wins

It is a tale of two contrasting wins as Aryna Sabalenka very much made it easy while Jessica Pegula on the otherhand made it anything at the Wuhan Open on Thursday morning.

For the sixth straight match, Pegula took to the court and it was a three-setter in the end at the Wuhan Open. For the fifth out of six times she came out on top as she saw off ninth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in just over two hours to advance to the Quarter-Finals for the first time.

Pegula rallied from 5-2 in the opening set to defeat the Russian in two hours and six minutes and advances through to face either Iva Jovic or Katerina Siniakova in the next round. They are currently facing off in China.

“I can’t remember the last time I played two sets,” Pegula said after the match. “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, but then I felt like it was a really high level there for the rest of the match. I’m just excited I was able to get over the finish line.”

While Aryna Sabalenka had it difficult yesterday mainly due to rustiness. Today was another matter as she made light work of Liudmila Samsonova to reach the latter stages with the Quarter-Finals now awaiting for the Queen of Wuhan.

The first set saw her narrowly break as she picked up steam and a 4-2 lead. She held and consolidated for 5-2 losing only one point behind her serve during that and most of the games in the opening set with the Belarusian giving few to little chances to her opponent.

She took the set from there again losing one point as she won through 6-3 to open her account. The second set was a lot more simpler as Sabalenka broke in the opening game to go 1-0 up before consolidating. Once again she broke this time en route to sealing the win as she made it 5-2 on the fourth attempt after having prior break points.

She sealed it on her first match point. Now she moves through to face the winner of another of the top ties today in Linda Noskova v Elena Rybakina in the Quarter-Finals. Coco Gauff perhaps has the easiest quarter with most of the seeds gone and only Laura Siegmund and Magdalena Frech in the position to face her if she gets past Shuai Zhang.

Sabalenka though also got the chance to walk on with her iconic background music and to adoring fans which she lauded after her win. “I dreamed my whole life for these moments. It really feels amazing. It gives me that boost of energy to go out and compete, fight, and chase my dreams.”