World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka returned to the WTA Tour after not playing a match since winning the US Open and opened her WTA 1000 Dongfeng Yeah Wuhan Open campaign with a win, surviving an early scare to beat unseeded Rebecca Sramkova 4-6 6-3 6-1 on Wednesday.
Tomorrow’s match belongs to Zhang Shuai tomorrow. Whatever comes, I will face it with all my strength and wisdom and use everything I have to overcome the challenges. For me, every match is just a match; it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. My focus is to do what I have to do and be myself. My fitness is even stronger today than it was eight or ten years ago. There aren’t many people who can play almost a full season and still compete in this heat with such determination. Zhang Shuai
Sabalenka, who took a Greek holiday after her second consecutive win at Flushing Meadows, withdrew from the China Open last week but continued her run in Wuhan, where her record stands at 18-0 in matches, and where she won the title in 2018, 2019 and 2024.
The defending champion broke her opponent at 68th in the opening game of the final set and marched on before converting her second match point to win after almost two hours.
“I knew that after that little break… it won’t be that easy to get back into my rhythm,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. “I’m really happy that I found my game in the second set and got into it. I think I played really great.”
Sramkova scored three clean winners in the very first game, including two spectacular returns, which allowed her to immediately break Sabalenka’s serve, and it set the tone for a first set in which the Slovakian wanted to be the first to land the biggest blows in each exchange, and largely succeeded.
She had 15 winners in the set, including 5 aces and 4 returns, while Sabalenka managed only 3 winners from the ground.
Although the top seed got some good service points on the board and led 2-1 in the second, Sramkova still came up with the most impressive attacking moves, but with the Slovak at 40-15 and level at 2-2, Sabalenka got on the board, hitting successive winners on both game points and grabbing the first break of the set when her opponent sent a forehand wide.
Sabalenka kept up the momentum for the remainder of the match, now withstanding Sramkova’s initial attack, and in the longer, high-octane exchanges she invariably found a higher level as her winning tally rose to 24 in the second and third sets, including 20 from the floor.
The four-time major champion passed two tests of clutch tennis, at 4-2 in the second set and at 4-1 in the third, coming through multi-deuce battles in which she had to save four break points each time.
After losing both break points she faced in the opener, she saved all nine in the next two sets.
“I must say she played fantastic tennis, especially in the first set,” Sabalenka admitted.
Sabalenka then resumes her rivalry with Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova, the No. 16 seed, who came from a set down to beat American Sofia Kenin for the first time in three meetings, 3-6 6-3 6-1, in an hour and 56 minutes.
Sabalenka has a 3-2 head-to-head advantage over Samsonova, including straight-sets wins in their two most recent meetings, at Cincinnati 2024 and Indian Wells 2025.
Jessica Pegula defeated Hailey Baptiste in a third-set tiebreak after nearly three hours of play Wednesday in Wuhan
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Another American, sixth seed Jessica Pegula, was broken twice while serving for the match in the third set, but recovered to beat compatriot Hailey Baptiste in a tight tiebreak to advance to Round 3.
Seeking her third victory in as many meetings with 23-year-old Baptiste, it took Pegula almost 3 hours and 7 match points before experience finally got the better of her.
She held off Baptiste in a gripping three-set battle, winning 6-4 4-6 7-6(6), in exactly 2 hours and 55 minutes, to reach the third round in Wuhan for the second year in a row.
“I don’t really know what to say about that match,” Pegula said afterwards. “It was brutal. You know, I had match points and then she started playing well. I think I just got a little hesitant, and sometimes that’s all it takes for someone to come back.”
“So I mean, I’m really proud of myself for keeping it together, because I think I could have easily collapsed. But I stuck with it, so yeah, that was a wild ride.”
Next up for Pegula is No. 9 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, who defeated another American, Ann Li, in the second round 7-6(5) 6-2.
Third seed Coco Gauff breezed past qualifier Moyuka Uchijima to begin her challenge in Wuhan on Wednesday
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No. 3 Coco Gauff, also from the US, and coming off a semi-final loss to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova at the China Open last week, entered the next round with a 6-1 6-0 victory over Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, a qualifier, in just 51 minutes.
“Today was a good game for me,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “I played well, so yeah, I’m just super happy to be here again in Wuhan and move on to the next round.”
It was a clinical performance from the world number 3, who won 12 of 13 matches and 55 of 77 points, but it was her serve that stood out the most, as she missed only 5 first serves and finished at 85% for the match, dropping only 6 points on her throw, while recording zero double faults and facing no break points.
She also kept her unforced errors to 8 and had 16 winners.
Her next opponent is Zhang Shuai, the 36-year-old Chinese, who is back on home soil in Wuhan this week and is enjoying every minute of it, with a 6-4 3-6 6-4 victory over Romanian Sorana Cirstea.
Zheng upset 14th seed Emma Navarro before beating Cirstea in 3 sets, after 2 hours and 1 minute.
“Tomorrow’s match belongs to tomorrow’s Zhang Shuai,” said the world number 142, a glimpse into her ever-present state of mind. “Whatever comes, I will face it with all my strength and wisdom and use everything I have to overcome the challenges. For me, every match is just a match – it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. My focus is to do what I have to do and be myself.”
Zhang, who is ranked 14th in the world in doubles, added that while history suggests she is all the way into the back nine of her career, she has plenty more left in the tank.
“My fitness is even stronger today than it was eight or 10 years ago,” she said. “Not many people can play almost a full season and still compete in this heat with such determination.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself because all my training and building up has paid off over time. So I’m not surprised by these results. Anyone who knows me knows how much effort I’ve put in. I believe that effort brings reward. We just have to keep planting the seeds, and good things will come.”
This will be Zhang’s fourth career meeting against Gauff, who has won the three previous meetings, the most recent of which was a 7-6(4) 6-2 win at the United Cup in Australia at the start of the year.
China Open finalist Linda Noskova upset 11th seed Naomi Osaka in three sets on Wednesday
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Meanwhile, 11th-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan was upset by unseeded Czech Linda Noskova, 17th, 7-6(2) 6-3.
Despite a grueling fortnight at the China Open, 20-year-old Noskova still performed strongly in the sweltering conditions of Wuhan, taking down another big name in an hour and 28 minutes.
“I try to be as humble as possible because every tournament is different,” she said after beating Osaka. “You have to step onto a new field almost every day. So I just tried to focus on this tournament and put what happened last week behind me, but at the same time I want to bring that confidence to the field, so I have to take a certain percentage of it as well.”
Noskova has the opportunity to make back-to-back WTA 1000 quarterfinals against another big server in No. 8 seed Elena Rybakina, who advanced with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Romania’s Jacquelin Cristian.
The Kazakh has won both of his previous meetings, at Roland Garros 2023 and Brisbane 2024, in straight sets.
Jasmine Paolini kept her hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals alive with a three-set win over Yuan Yue on Day 4 of the 2025 Wuhan Open at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center
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With three places still available for the season-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh, both Rybakina, currently 8th in the Race, and Jasmine Paolini, 9th, improved their qualification chances.
Based on the current rankings, Rybakina needs to finish at least one round ahead of Paolini this week to maintain her lead, and Paolini is hanging in there, the seventh-seeded Italian recording her 39th main draw win of the season against Yuan Yue of China, 3-6 6-4 6-3.
Paolini will aim to equal her career best of 40 wins when she next faces Denmark’s Clara Tauson, who has a career head-to-head advantage of 1-0.
Tauson, the 10th seed in Wuhan, advanced with a 6-4 6-0 win over Croatian qualifier Antonia Ruzic.
Another qualifier, Czech Katerina Siniakova, also advanced to beat Australia’s Maya Joint 6-3 6-1, setting up a third-round meeting with American teenager Iva Jovic, who ran out a 6-4 6-4 winner against Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
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