Coco Gauff reaches the Wuhan district, Jessica Pegula is out

Coco Gauff extended her winning streak in China to eight games, reaching the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over 13th-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

Fourth-seeded Gauff is trying to become only the second player after Caroline Garcia from France (2017) to win the WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan in the same year.

“I’m really happy with my performance today,” said Gauff after her 61-minute 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.”

Gauff converted all five break chances, including three consecutive breaks of serve, to end the game. Next up is unseeded Magda Linette of Poland, who won 6-2, 6-3 over No. 8 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia.

No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus fought alongside Gauff into the last eight and managed a 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 comeback against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in just over two hours.

For Sabalenka it is the eleventh quarter-final in a row. The two-time defending champion of the tournament improved her record in Wuhan to a perfect 14-0.

“In the first set, everything she was going to do seemed good for her,” said Sabalenka, who made 14 unforced errors in the first set. “I was struggling with the strings. I was completely confused.

“I’m really happy that I was able to pull myself together in the second set and it worked.”

Putintseva broke Sabalenka's serve three times in the first set and twice in the second before the US Open champion won the final nine games of the match.

Sabalenka will face Poland's Magdalena Frech after defeating No. 9 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-3, 6-2.

Gauff is the only remaining American in the field, with No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula losing 6-3, 7-5 to China's Xinyu Wang. Wang faced just one break point and reached her first career WTA 1000 quarterfinal, where she will face Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia. Alexandrova beat Pegula's compatriot Hailey Baptiste with a 6-1, 6-1 win in 63 minutes.

The other quarterfinal match pits No. 3 Jasmine Paolini of Italy and No. 5 Qinwen Zheng of China.

Paolini converted four of five break points in a 6-3, 6-2 win against Russian Erika Andreeva. Zheng needed 2 hours and 29 minutes to defeat Canada's Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.

–Field level media