WUHAN, September 27, 2017
World No. 1 and Wimbledon winner Garbine Muguruza set up a mouthwatering Thursday quarter-final clash with Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko after a gritty 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 win over Magda Linette at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open on Wednesday.
“You know, these are the matches that you cannot let them go,” said Muguruza. “One is going to win, and is the one that wants it more and is more aggressive and brave. I’m not surprised that maybe the favourites are losing because everybody plays very good. If you’re not 100% and the other one plays good… It’s very tricky. Today I have a very tough match and I could have been also gone.”
Ostapenko beat Olympic Gold Medallist Monica Puig in three sets at the $2,666,000 WTA Premier 5 tournament to keep up her winning streak. Ostapenko came to Wuhan fresh from winning the title in Soeul last week.
“I think she is just playing very good,” said Muguruza. “I saw she won just a title right now. She’s having a good year, actually like a breakthrough year. It’s interesting. I like to play these matches where you’re playing the players that are playing the best. You want to see, you want to feel that. It’s going to be a good quarterfinals. I’m looking forward for that.”
Twenty-one-year-old Australian Ashleigh Barty continued her giant-killing run by following up Tuesday’s upset win over Johanna Konta with a resurgent 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory over ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Barty will have former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova in her sights in Thursday’s quarter-finals after Pliskova ended hopes of a home Wuhan Open champion by beating Qiang Wang in straight sets.
France’s Caroline Garcia will face Ekaterina Makarova for the place in the last four after Garcia beat last year’s Wuhan Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova and Makarova beat Daria Kasatkina on Wednesday.
Alize Cornet came through a rain-affected third round match to set up a last eight meeting with qualifier Maria Sakkari on Thursday. Sakkari continued her five-match winning streak in Wuhan with a 7-6(6), 7-5 win over 16th seed Elena Vesnina.
2017 DONGFENG MOTOR WUHAN OPEN – WUHAN, CHINA
$2,666,000
22-30 SEPTEMBER, 2017
RESULTS – SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
Women’s Singles – Third Round
[1] G. Muguruza (ESP) d [Q] M. Linette (POL) 62 16 64
[3] K. Pliskova (CZE) d Q. Wang (CHN) 62 61
C. Garcia (FRA) d [7] D. Cibulkova (SVK) 63 75
[8] J. Ostapenko (LAT) d [Q] M. Puig (PUR) 62 36 63
A. Barty (AUS) d [9] A. Radwanska (POL) 46 60 64
[Q] M. Sakkari (GRE) d [16] E. Vesnina (RUS) 76(6) 75
A. Cornet (FRA) d [Q] V. Lepchenko (USA) 36 64 62
E. Makarova (RUS) d D. Kasatkina (RUS) 64 64
Women’s Doubles – Second Round
[2] E. Makarova (RUS) / E. Vesnina (RUS) d [Alt] M. Barthel (GER) / C. Witthoeft (GER) 67(4) 31 Retired
[4] A. Barty (AUS) / C. Dellacqua (AUS) d A. Klepac (SLO) / M. Martínez Sánchez (ESP) 76(4) 36 10-5
[5] G. Dabrowski (CAN) / Y. Xu (CHN) d N. Melichar (USA) / A. Smith (GBR) 67(3) 64 11-9
[6] A. Groenefeld (GER) / K. Peschke (CZE) d M. Ninomiya (JPN) / R. Voracova (CZE) 60 62
[7] A. Rosolska (POL) / A. Spears (USA) d D. Kasatkina (RUS) / K. Siniakova (CZE) 61 75
S. Aoyama (JPN) / Z. Yang (CHN) d N. Kichenok (UKR) / An. Rodionova (AUS) 62 75
