Gauff gets his eighth win in a row and storms into the Wuhan district; Pegula out

Coco Gauff's winning streak in China continues after a stunning 6-4, 6-1 victory over Marta Kostyuk in the round of 16 of the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open on Thursday.

“I’m really happy with my performance today,” said Gauff after her win. “It was a pretty straightforward game. Marta and I always had a few good fights. Today I was able to advance in straight sets.”

Wuhan: Scores | schedule | Pulls

The No. 4 seed Gauff defeated the No. 13 seed Kostyuk in just 61 minutes of play to secure her eighth consecutive victory on the tour. Gauff won her eighth career WTA singles title at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing last week, returning to world No. 4 on Monday.

Gauff still has the chance to become only the second player to win both Beijing and Wuhan in the same year since this WTA 1000 combination came into effect in 2014. Caroline Garcia won both titles in 2017.

No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula wanted to take two Americans to the last eight, but failed against Wang Xinyu. The 51st-ranked Wang enjoyed a professional serving day to fend off Pegula, winning 6-3, 7-5 to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal. Wang will next face Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Thursday's victory was also Gauff's 70th career match win in WTA 1000 events. The 20-year-old American is the youngest player to reach this number since the WTA 1000 rankings began in 2009. She is only the fourth player to reach this milestone before the age of 23, joining Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Iga Swiatek.

Against Kostyuk, Gauff was confident on the return, converting all five break points she collected while only losing serve once in the second game of the match.

After a relatively close first set, Gauff equalized in the second set, where she won 26 of the 35 points. Kostyuk was partially undone by double faults at inopportune moments; She had four hits in the competition, including one match point.

Gauff's quarterfinal opponent will be number 45 in the world rankings Magda Linette from Poland. Linette defeated No. 8 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3 in 72 minutes on Thursday, earning the 14th top-20 win of her career and reaching a WTA 1000 quarterfinal for the first time in her career .

Highlights: Linette d. Kasatkina

Gauff battled through Linette in their only previous meeting, which was a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory for the American in the first round of the 2021 US Open.

“This game was so long ago,” Gauff said. “I trained with (Linette) several times in between. She lives in South Florida. She is a tough opponent. … She played some great games here in Wuhan. I expect it to be a tough game.”

Wang remains unbeaten against Pegula: Wang improved to 2-0 against Pegula after ousting the world No. 3 from Wimbledon in the summer. Both of her top-10 wins came against Pegula, and Thursday's victory was her best win of her career based on the rankings.

With a place in the quarterfinals on the line, Wang played a methodically solid game from the baseline to keep the pressure on Pegula, who was struggling to break through. Most impressively, Wang didn't have a break point until she got to the line and took the win 6-3, 5-3.

Pegula capitalized on her advantage by breaking Wang to return to serve and lay the foundation for a comeback. But Wang responded perfectly, claiming her first match points at 15:40 and converting her second with a clean backhand to seal the upset.

With the win, Wang became the second Chinese woman to reach the Wuhan quarterfinals, after Wang Qiang in 2018. She also became the fifth Chinese player to score a top-five win in a completed match at a WTA 1000, joining Li Na. Shuai Zhang, Saisai Zheng and Yafan Wang.