Aryna Sabalenka continued her unbeaten record at the Wuhan Open on Thursday to seal her place in the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event for the 30th time in her career.
The three-time defending champion powered her way to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Liudmila Samsonova in what was only her second match since winning the US Open. Sabalenka impressively won 77% of her first-service points and dropped only three points behind her second. She has now won 19 consecutive matches in Wuhan, which is the longest streak achieved at a WTA 1000 event staged in the same city since Serena Williams, who recorded 21 wins between 2012 and 2019 in Rome.
After delaying the start of her Asian swing due to a minor injury, Sabalenka is chasing after her fifth trophy of the season. During her brief break from the Tour, she visited Greece, where she managed to spend some time on the court with Novak Djokovic. Djokovic, who is currently playing at the Shanghai Masters, became a resident of Greece earlier this year.
“I won a lot of points against him for the record,” the AFP news agency quoted Sabalenka as saying.
“I hope he’s going to confirm that. We went for dinner. We practised a couple times.
“I hope I was a great hitting partner. So far, he’s winning in Shanghai,” she added.
“So I guess I was, it was a good one. I really hope he’s going to go all the way.”
Sabalenka will next play either former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina or Linda Noskova.
Also through to the quarter-finals in Wuhan is sixth seed Jessica Pegula, who battled her way past Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. The American has been taken to three sets in six out of her last seven matches played since last month.
“I can’t remember the last time I played two sets,” Pegula commented. “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.”
Pegula has now recorded 44 wins over top 20 players during her career and has a win-loss record of 48-18 this year. Should she claim the Wuhan title, she will automatically qualify for the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.
