Canada’s Bianca Andreescu and China’s Yue Yuan smoothly advanced to the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Wuhan Open on Thursday without having to play a match. The top-seeded Italians Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani pulled out before their scheduled match, granting Andreescu and Yuan a walkover victory.
Paolini, later on, progressed to the singles quarterfinals after her opponent, Denmark’s Clara Tauson, retired while trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-1. Andreescu, hailing from Mississauga, Ont., and Yuan are set to face the No. 8 seeds, Anna Danilina from Kazakhstan and Aleksandra Krunic from Serbia in the next round.
Meanwhile, Leylah Fernandez from Laval, Que., and her partner Erin Routliffe from New Zealand were eliminated in the round of 16 after a tough match against Linda Noskova from the Czech Republic and Rebecca Sramkova from Slovakia, with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 10-4. Routliffe, who resides in Montreal, often partners with another Canadian player, Gabriela Dabrowski from Ottawa, with whom she claimed the U.S. Open women’s doubles title last month.
In other matches, U.S. Open champion Aryna Sabalenka continued her winning streak at the Wuhan Open, extending it to 19 matches by defeating Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2 to secure a spot in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000-level tournament. Sabalenka, the top-ranked player, has a remarkable record at Wuhan, having clinched titles there in 2018, ’19, and ’24.
Second-ranked Iga Swiatek also advanced by defeating former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic 7-6 (2), 6-4. Swiatek now holds a 5-1 career record over Bencic, including a victory in the Wimbledon semifinals in July.
In the late match, third-ranked Coco Gauff defeated Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-2, setting up a quarterfinal showdown with Laura Siegemund.
Sabalenka is scheduled to face eighth-seeded Elena Rybakina in the next round, while Swiatek will take on Jasmine Paolini and Gauff will play against Laura Siegemund. Earlier, Jessica Pegula staged a strong comeback to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, securing her spot in the final eight. Pegula, the sixth seed, won four of the last five games to claim victory after leveling the deciding set at 2-2.
This win marked Pegula’s sixth consecutive three-set match, with her emerging victorious for the fifth time.