Day 3 saw Fran Jones finally take to the court on Wednesday, but the British No. 3 succumbed to the heat in Chennai and retired in the third set, while four players arrived in the quarter-finals in Hong Kong, and two last 8 matches were decided in Jiujiang, China….
The older I get, the more enjoyment I have found in my tennis. That’s why I’m still here and I can reach a good level. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do at my age if I didn’t have so much love for the sport. I like hard work and I am fit. I have always been aggressive and got along well with opponents, even with the new generation. I’m quite coachable, which helps because tennis is moving forward and you have to adapt. At the beginning of the year I thought this would be my last, but the way I’m playing I’ll do another one in 2026. Sorana Cirstea
WTA 250 Prudential Hong Kong Open, China
Former champion Leylah Fernandez, No. 2 from Canada, won for the eighth time in her last nine matches in Hong Kong on Wednesday. She defeated Germany’s Eva Lys 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the quarter-finals after facing just one break point in the 68-minute match.
The Canadian next faces Romania’s seventh seed Sorana Cirstea, who battled her way past Australia’s Ajla Tomjlanovic, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, ultimately sealing victory on her fifth match point.
Cirstea held off a late charge from 1-5 down in the third set from Tomljanovic before reaching her sixth tour-level quarter-final of 2025 with her second win in five meetings with the Australian as the pair played for the first time in qualifying for Beijing in 2014.
The 35-year-old Romanian is currently ranked No. 45 in the world and had planned to retire at the end of this year, but she won her second career tour title in Cleveland in August before advancing to the semi-finals of this month’s Japan Open, where she fell to Fernandez in 3 sets.
“The older I get, the more I enjoy my tennis,” said Cirstea, who made his debut on the tour in 2006. “That’s why I’m still here and I can reach a good level. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do at my age if I didn’t have so much love for the sport.”
“I like to work hard and be fit. I have always been aggressive and got along well with opponents, even with the new generation. I am quite coachable, which helps because tennis is moving forward and you have to adapt.”
“At the beginning of the year I thought this would be my last one, but the way I’m playing I’ll do another one in 2026.”
Cirstea, who missed the second half of 2024 due to a foot injury, added: “I didn’t know how I was going to get back and I didn’t expect to reach this level, especially towards the end of the season. I’m pleasantly surprised, but I know I worked very hard and it’s nice that everything has fallen together.”
Australia’s No. 5 Maya Joint was successful in holding off a strong challenge from Slovakian qualifier Viktoria Morvayova, who played in her first career WTA main draw, winning 6-1 6-4 against advancing to her 6th tour-level quarterfinal of 2025.
Spain’s Cristina Bucsa improved to 3-0 overall against Colombia’s Emiliana Arango with a 6-2 6-4 defeat to the eighth seed, advancing to her first tour-level quarter-final since Bogota in 2024.
Top seed Zeynep Sonmez opened her campaign at the Chennai Open on Wednesday with a first-round win against Tatiana Prozorova
© Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
WTA 250 Chennai Open, India
Top-seeded Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey opened with a 7-5 6-4 win against Russian teenager Tatiana Prozorova, while British No. 3 Fran Jones finally made her debut in Chennai earlier on Wednesday as a No. 2 seed against Japanese qualifier Mei Yamaguchi and saw temperatures soar below 30 degrees in the wake of Cyclone Montha, forcing play to be postponed during the first two days of the WTA. 250 event.
Jones fought to win the first set but succumbed to both the heat and her opponent in the second before retiring at the start of the third with a score of 5-7, 6-0, 1-0, in favor of the Japanese after 1 hour and 31 minutes.
In round 2, Yamaguchi meets Taipei’s Joanna Garland, who defeated Arianne Hartono, a qualifier from the Netherlands, 6-4 6-2.
Jones was among the players who retired Wednesday due to the harsh conditions. Maria Timofeeva of Uzbekistan pulled away against Lantana Tararudee when the Thai was leading 6-2, 2-0, Russia’s Alina Charaeva threw in the towel as compatriot Polina Iacenko, the Caldas da Rainha WTA 125 champion, led 6-3, 5-0, and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia bowed out to the lucky loser, Arina Rodionova, with the Australian ahead at 6-3, 5-5.
Tararudee moves on to meet top-seeded Sonmez, who took care of business in her opening round match against Prozorova, wrapping it up in just over an hour and a half.
Rodionova heads to meet her Australian compatriot Storm Hunter, who outlasted Japan’s Mai Hontama 6-7(0) 6-2 6-4.
Croatia’s number three Donna Vekic also suffered from the heat and needed a medical timeout to recover enough to beat Indian lucky loser 20-year-old Vaishnavi Adkar 6-1 6-2 to claim her first win since the US Open.
Vekic next meets Indian wildcard Sahaja Yamalapalee, who won 6-4, 6-2 against lucky loser Priska Nugroho, also from India.
Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa lost a crushing first-set tiebreak to No. 5 seed Lucia Bronzetti of Italy, but dropped just 3 games the rest of the way on her way to a 6-7(9) 6-0 6-2 victory in 2 hours and 46 minutes and advanced to the second round where she met 21-year-old Iacenko.
It is Kawa’s first main draw victory at WTA level since reaching the final at the WTA 250 in Colombia in early April.
Another Aussie, seventh seed Kimberly Birrell, also advanced and recovered after winning just 11 points in the first set to beat 19-year-old Czech Nikola Bartunkova 1-6 6-1 6-3, and she will face Shivalli Shamidipaty next.
In a first-round clash between two Indian wildcards, both making their tour-level debuts, the No. 434-ranked Bhamidipaty and the 23-year-old defeated No. 658-ranked Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi, 16, 6-1 6-4.
In other first-round results on Wednesday, France’s Diane Parry, ninth seed Lulu Sun’s replacement, defeated lucky loser Thesaporn Naklo of Thailand 6-2 6-0 to set up a meeting with wildcard Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, who advanced 7-5 6-1 against Japan’s Mao Hibino; while Czech Linda Fruhvirtova was an easy 6-2 6-2 winner over French qualifier Astrid Lew Yan Foo, and will face fourth seed, Indonesian Janice Tjen, who found her way past Germany’s Caroline Werner, a qualifier, 6-4 6-7(3) 6-2.
Defending champion and No. 2 seed Viktorija Golubic escaped Elena Pridankina from 3-5 down in a Jiujiang 3-set thriller on Wednesday.
© Paul Miller/AFP via Getty Images
WTA 250 Jiangxi Open, China
The two quarter-finals in the lower half of the draw in Jiujiang, China, were decided on Wednesday, as No. 2 seed Viktorija Golubic escaped Elena Pridankina from 3-5 in a Jiujiang 3-set thriller.
The defending champion from Switzerland rallied in the third set to deny the Russian lucky loser, 6-0 4-6 7-5, in a 2-hour, 42-minute barn burner that sent Golubic to her third tour-level quarter-final of 2025.
In a match with a total of 13 double faults, Golubic saved a whopping 24 of 29 break points and converted 8 of 16 break chances.
She next faces No. 5 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, who ran a quick 6-2 6-0 winner in 64 minutes against Chinese wildcard Wushuang Zheng to make her second tour-level Last 8 appearance of the season, and her first since Adelaide in January.
17-year-old Lilli Tagger has a special one-handed backhand, and the Austrian is keeping the rare stroke alive in the next generation, showing it off with a pair of stunning down-the-line winners in her second round match against Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
The teenage wildcard defeated the Italian 6-4 6-2 in an hour and 37 minutes, and goes on to test herself and her backhand against Tamara Korpatsch, who won an all-German match with Ella Seidel, 3-6 6-0 6-1.
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