Sabalenka still perfect at WTA’s Wuhan Open

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Sabalenka still perfect at WTA’s Wuhan Open

Second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka has maintained her undefeated record at the Wuhan Open, starting her campaign with a 6-4 6-4 win over 37th-ranked Katerina Siniakova in a second-round match.

Two-time defending champion Sabalenka, who received a bye in the first round with the other top eight seeds, broke her Czech opponent twice in each set — as well as surrendering one of her own service games — as she clinched her latest win in one hour 34 minutes.

In round three, the 26-year-old Belarusian will play Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, who ended Paris Olympics silver medallist Donna Vekic’s tournament with a 6-4 3-6 6-4 victory.

The reigning US Open champion is now up to 13-0 in Wuhan after winning the title on her first appearance in 2018 and defending her crown in 2019 before the tournament took its five-year hiatus from the calendar due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and a WTA boycott of China.

“I missed Wuhan a lot,” Sabalenka said.

“I just have really good memories of winning, two times, the title here. Just Wuhan brings me a lot of great memories, good vibes.”

Sabalenka needs only to make the quarter-finals at Wuhan to regain top spot in the rankings from Iga Swiatek, who withdrew from the women’s ****** swing citing fatigue and personal reasons. Polish star Swiatek recently split with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.

There were six Americans in second-round matches on Wednesday.

China Open champion Coco Gauff routed Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-1 6-2, while Hailey Baptiste upset 10th-ranked Barbora Krejcikova 6-3 7-5 for her first win over a Top-10 player.

Magdalena Frech beat eighth-ranked Emma Navarro 6-4 3-6 6-3, and No.11-ranked Daria Kasatkina overcame a mid-match stumble to defeat Bernarda Pera 6-4 1-6 6-1.

Amanda Anisimova withdrew from her match against 17th-ranked Marta Kostyuk.

Later on Wednesday, third-ranked Jessica Pegula plays Anastasia Potapova and the Andreeva sisters — Mirra and Erika — face each other for the first time at a tour-level tournament.

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