Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu and Chinese athlete Yue Yuan progressed to the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Wuhan Open through a walkover victory on Thursday. The top-seeded Italian duo, Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani, withdrew before the match, granting Andreescu and Yuan the advancement.
Paolini later made it to the singles quarterfinals after her opponent, Denmark’s Clara Tauson, retired while trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-1. Andreescu and Yuan, set to face Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic in the next round, are the No. 8 seeds.
In another match, Leylah Fernandez from Laval, Quebec, and her partner Erin Routliffe from New Zealand were ousted in the round of 16 after losing to Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic and Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 10-4.
Meanwhile, U.S. Open champion Aryna Sabalenka extended her winning streak at the Wuhan Open 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 previously clinched titles at Wuhan in 2018, 2019, and 2024.
Second-ranked Iga Swiatek also moved forward by winning 7-6 (2), 6-4 against Belinda Bencic, the former Olympic champion. Swiatek now holds a 5-1 career record over Bencic, including a victory in the Wimbledon semifinals in July.
In a later match, third-ranked Coco Gauff defeated Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-2, after coming off a semifinal loss in the China Open last week.
Sabalenka is scheduled to play against eighth-seeded Elena Rybakina in the next round, while Swiatek will face Jasmine Paolini, and Gauff will compete against Laura Siegemund.
Jessica Pegula also advanced to the quarterfinals after overcoming Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Pegula, the sixth seed, leveled the deciding set at 2-2 and secured victory by winning four of the last five games. It was Pegula’s sixth consecutive three-set match, and she emerged victorious for the fifth time.
