WUHAN, China — U.S. Open champion Aryna Sabalenka defeated Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday, extending her Wuhan Open win streak to 19 matches and advancing to the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000-level tournament.
Top-ranked Sabalenka’s winning streak includes title wins in Wuhan in 2018, 2019 and 2024.
Earlier, Jessica Pegula recovered from a break of serve early in the third set to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the last eight. Sixth-seeded Pegula, who lost in the China Open semifinals last week, tied the deciding set at 2-2 and then won four of her final five matches to take the title.
The victory over world No. 9 Alexandrova came a day after Pegula needed seven match points to defeat fellow American Haley Baptiste in the second round.
It was Pegula’s sixth consecutive three-set match and fifth win.
“I can’t remember the last time we played two sets,” Pegula said. “But I’ve been competing really hard and playing against really good players. Today the roof was closed and the conditions were different than usual, so I think it took me a little while to adjust.”
In the night matches, world No. 2 Iga Swiatek was scheduled to face Belinda Bencic, while No. 3 Coco Gauff, who lost to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals at last week’s China Open, was scheduled to play Zhang Shuai.
