Seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland reached a milestone and moved into the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Ashlyn Krueger at the Wuhan Open on Thursday in China.
The 94-minute match marked the 150th WTA 1000 win of her career. Since 1990, Swiatek is just the third player to hit that total within her first 50 such tournaments, joining Martina Hingis and Serena Williams.
Swiatek has now reached seven WTA 1000 quarterfinals in 2026, eclipsing Elena Rybakina for the most by any player this season. It also is the six-time Grand Slam champion’s 32nd career WTA 1000 quarterfinal, second among active players behind Aryna Sabalenka (33).
“It’s not easy at the end of the season, so I’m really focusing on recovering every day as much as possible,” Swiatek said in her on-court interview. “But I’m happy to get some wins, because I feel like I’m playing better than at the beginning of the season, so I’m ready to push and happy to be in the quarters.”
Swiatek wasn’t particularly sharp with only nine winners and 27 unforced errors, but she saved seven of eight break points and took advantage of 46 unforced errors by Krueger.
Up next for Swiatek is Ann Li, who upset the top-seeded Sabalenka in the second round Wednesday. Li moved into the quarters with a 6-1, 7-6 (1) victory against Indonesia’s Janice Tjen.
Britain’s Sonay Kartal roared to a 6-2, 6-0 upset of 15th-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini in just 63 minutes. Awaiting Kartal in the quarterfinals is No. 5 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, a 6-1, 6-4 winner against Chinese hopeful Hanyu Guo.
No. 11 Diana Shnaider of Russia delivered a 7-5, 6-3 victory against No. 6 Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Shnaider will take on Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who outlasted Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
The other quarterfinal will pit unseeded Maria Sakkari of Greece against No. 16 Maja Chwalinska, the French Open runner-up from Poland.
Sakkari took down Slovakia’s Mia Pohankova 6-1, 6-4 and Chwalinska advanced with a nearly identical 6-4, 6-1 triumph against No. 10 seed Iva Jovic.
“I think it was quite a solid match from my side,” Chwalinska said after the biggest win of her career by opponent’s ranking (11th). “Iva is an amazing player. I knew that I needed to play my best game to get a win today.
“I think we had many very challenging rallies and it was a very physical match, I think, even though the score maybe doesn’t show it, but it was definitely a very hard match. Yeah, very happy about the performance.”
–Field Level Media
