Gauff extends winning streak to eight in Wuhan, enters quarter finals

Coco Gauff continued her winning run to eight games in China after an emphatic straight sets victory over Marta Kostyuk in the round of 16 at the Wuhan Open on Thursday.

Gauff, who is chasing her ninth career title in Wuhan this week after claiming her eighth career WTA singles title last week at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing, eased past 13th-seeded Kostyuk 6-4,6-1 in just 61 minutes of play to earn her eighth straight win on tour.

“I played really well today. Marta is a tough opponent, but I’m really happy with how I played. Every match I’m just trying to push through. It’s been a lot of matches in a really short amount of time… but I’m really happy with how I played today,” Gauff said on court interview after the encounter.

Thursday’s victory was also Gauff’s 70th career match-win at WTA 1000 events. The 20-year-old American becomes the youngest player to hit that number since the WTA 1000 tier started in 2009. She is only the fourth player to reach that milestone before turning 23, joining Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Iga Swiatek.

She still has the chance to become only the second player to win both Beijing and Wuhan in the same year since that WTA 1000 combo came into effect in 2014. Caroline Garcia won both of those titles in 2017.

Gauff’s quarterfinal opponent will be World No.45 Magda Linette of Poland. Linette dismissed No.8 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3 in 72 minutes on Thursday, earning the 14th Top 20 win of her career and making her first career WTA 1000 quarterfinal.