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WUHAN, China (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka extended her winning streak
at Wuhan to 20 matches with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over
eighth-seeded Elena Rybakina on Friday to reach the semifinals
of the WTA 1000-level tournament.
The U.S. Open champion won the Wuhan Open title in 2018, ’19 and
again last year on her return to the Chinese city.
Top-ranked Sabalenka broke Rybakina's serve three times in the
1-hour, 25-minute match to advance into the semifinals for the
11th time this season, and then waved and blew kisses to the
crowd.
“We have a really huge history against each other,” Sabalenka
said in her on-court interview. “Always great battles ... (Rybakina)
always pushes me to the limit to get the win.”
She'll next play sixth-deed Jessica Pegula, who earlier Friday
went to a third set for a seventh consecutive match. She dropped
the first set against Katerina Siniakova before reeling through
the next two for a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory.
Pegula is coming off wins over No. 9 Ekaterina Alexandrova and
fellow American Hailey Baptiste, when she needed seven match
points to clinch the win.
In the other quarterfinals, No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek was playing
Jasmine Paolini and No. 3 Coco Gauff was scheduled to meet Laura
Siegemund.
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