Sabalenka overcomes early scare to advance at Wuhan Open, Osaka loses

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, reacts after a point against Amanda Anisimova, of the United States

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka overcame an early scare to beat unseeded Rebecca Sramkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the Wuhan Open yesterday.

The defending champion has had an amazing run in Wuhan — her record is 18-0 while winning titles in 2018, 2019 and 2024.

The U.S. Open champion Sabalenka broke her 68th-ranked opponent in the opening game of the final set and went on before converting her second match point to win in almost two hours.

“I knew that after that little break … it will be not that easy to get back in my rhythm,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. “I’m really gland the in the second set I found my game and stepped in and I think I played really great.”

Sabalenka started her rally by breaking her 68th-ranked opponent in fourth game of the second set and jumped to a 4-1 lead. She saved four break points in the seventh game.

She faces next No. 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova who rallied to beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Sramkova broke Sabalenka twice in the opening set.

Sabalenka, who took a Greek holiday after her second consecutive win at Flushing Meadows, withdrew from last week’s China Open, another WTA 1000-level event.

Jessica Pegula was twice broken while serving for the match in the third set but recovered to edge Hailey Baptiste in a tight tiebreaker and advance.

Sixth-seeded Pegula beat her fellow American 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) on her seventh match point to reach the third round.

Pegula, who lost in the China Open semifinals last week, will next play ninth-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat American Ann Li 7-6 (5), 6-2.

No. 3 Coco Gauff, coming off a semifinal loss to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova at the China Open last week, breezed into the next round with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Moyuka Uchijima in 51 minutes.

Also, qualifier Katerina Siniaková beat Maya Joint 6-3, 6-1.

Eleventh-seeded Naomi Osaka was upset by unseeded Linda Noskova 7-6 (2), 6-3. The 20-year-old inform Czech was defeated by Amanda Anisimova in the final of the China Open on Sunday.

Noskova, ranked 17th, will next face either Jaqueline Cristian or Elena Rybakina. MDT/AP