Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff have made winning starts at the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan.
The Belarusian, seeded at No. 1 in the absence of Iga Swiatek, saw off Katerina Siniakova 6-4 6-4 to set up a third-round meeting against Yulia Putintseva.
On the other side, the fourth-seeded American annihilated Viktoriya Tomova 6-1 6-2.
For Sabalenka, this was her 13th win in Wuhan. And considering that she won back-to-back titles at the tournament in her first two appearances in 2018 and 2019, she remains undefeated at the Chinese event.
By doing so, the 26-year-old became the first player since Maria Sharapova to win her 13 opening matches at a WTA tournament – the Russian tennis legend accomplished it in Stuttgart between 2012 and 2014.
“Happy to be back in Wuhan. Siniakova, who is fighting for every point, it’s really good that I was able to finish this match in two sets… I missed Wuhan a lo. I just have really good memories of winning, two times, the title here. Just Wuhan brings me a lot of great memories, good vibes,” the Belarusian reflected.
How Sabalenka, Gauff won their matches?
In the first set, the top seed blew her opening break – but remained calm – and still won the opening set after breaking Siniakova in the 10th game when the Czech was serving to stay…
