No. 3 seed Coco Gauff breezed to a 6-1, 6-0 win in 51 minutes against Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima in her opening match Wednesday at the Wuhan Open in China.
Gauff drilled five aces, won 89 percent (25 of 28) of the points on her first serve and converted five of eight break chances. Uchijima held serve in the fourth game of the opening set to avoid the double bagel.
“Today was a good match for me,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “I played well, so yeah, I’m just super happy to be back here in Wuhan and moving on to the next round.”
Gauff’s third-round opponent at the WTA 1000 tournament will be home favorite Shuai Zhang of China, a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 winner against Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
Aryna Sabalenka, the top-seeded three-time champion, had to rally to remain perfect in Wuhan with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win against Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova.
Sabalenka’s 18-0 record in the tournament marks the longest such streak at any event since Caroline Wozniacki won her first 20 matches at New Haven with three titles between 2008 and 2012.
After her first-set stumble, Sabalenka never trailed in the next two sets. She saved 10 of 12 break points in a match that lasted just under two hours.
“I have to say she played incredible tennis, especially in the first set,” Sabalenka said of Sramkova. “Not much I could do. I knew that after that little break (since the U.S. Open) it would not be easy to get back in my rhythm, but I’m really glad that in the second set I found my game, I stepped in and I think I played really great.”
Up next for the World No. 1 is a third-round tilt with No. 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova. The Russian also rallied from a set down, defeating Sofia Kenin 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 56 minutes.
Sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula also worked overtime in the second round, outlasting fellow American Hailey Baptiste 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) in two hours and 55 minutes. Baptiste saved six match points before succumbing on No. 7
“I’m really proud of myself for how I held it together, because I think I easily could’ve just collapsed. But I held tough, so yeah, that was a wild ride,” Pegula said.
Pegula will meet No. 9 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia after her 7-6 (5), 6-2 defeat of Ann Li.
No. 7 Jasmine Paolini of Italy edged China’s Yue Yuan 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. No. 10 Clara Tauson of Denmark beat Antonia Ruzic of Croatia 6-4, 6-0. Czech Linda Noskova ousted No. 11 Naomi Osaka of Japan 7-6 (2), 6-3. Poland’s Magdalena Frech was leading 7-6 (1), 4-1 when 12th-seeded Czech Karolina Muchova retired.
Also advancing were No. 8 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, No. 13 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, American Iva Jovic and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
–Field Level Media
