Sabalenka starts title defence with victory in Wuhan

Aryna Sabalenka began her title defence whilst maintaining an undefeated record at the Wuhan Open on Wednesday after claiming her 50th win of the season.

The 26-year-old Belarusian and two-time defending champion Sabalenka opened her latest Wuhan campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory over 37th-ranked Katerina Siniakova.

After her first-round bye, Sabalenka reclaimed her winning ways by toppling WTA Doubles World No.1 Siniakova in 1 hour and 34 minutes of play.

The World No.2 Sabalenka, is now up to 13-0 in Wuhan throughout her career. She won the title in her maiden appearance in 2018, then defended her crown in 2019 before the tournament took its five-year hiatus from the calendar.

Sabalenka also notched her 50th tour-level win of the year by beating Siniakova. Sabalenka trails only Iga Swiatek in tour-level match-wins for the year, and she edges closer to top-ranked Swiatek in their showdown for the year-end World No.1 spot in the PIF WTA Singles Rankings.

This year’s Australian Open and US Open champion, Sabalenka is hoping to start a new run of victories as the season comes to a close. She had a 15-match winning streak snapped by Karolina Muchova in last week’s Beijing quarterfinals.

Sabalenka’s Round of 16 opponent will be 35th-ranked Yulia Putintseva, who eliminated No.15 seed Donna Vekic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 earlier on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Hailey Baptiste claimed her first ever victory over a Top 10 player after stunning reigning Wimbledon champion and World no.10 Barbora Krejikova 6-3, 7-5 to move into the Round of 16.

The 21-year-old Baptiste came through another successful qualifying campaign at the Dongfeng Voyah.