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.
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