At the end of 2024, the world tennis world will enter the Chinese season, with the China Open, Wuhan Open, and Shanghai ATP Masters in full swing, and Chinese fans can enjoy the world's top tennis players at their doorstep. Today, the second round of the Open was underway, with No.1 seed Sabalenka taking on Siniakova and Olympic silver medallist Vekic taking on Kazakhstan's Putintseva.
Putintseva 2-1 Vekic
Putintseva, who is ranked 35th in the world, ended her 21-match winning streak at Wimbledon in July by beating world number one Swiatek to reach the last 16 of Wimbledon for the first time in her career, and won the WTA 250 tournament in Birmingham. In the first round of the Wuhan Open, Putintseva defeated Zhang Shuai with a score of 6-4 and 6-4 and successfully advanced to the second round.
Wikic is ranked No. 19 in the world and is the No. 15 seed at the Wuhan Open, who has reached the semi-finals of four Grand Slams in his career, won four WTA Tour singles titles, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon this year, and reached the final at the Paris Olympics, but lost to Zheng Qinwen and finished as runner-up. At this year's US Open, Vekic lost to Zheng Qinwen again. In the middle of the Open, Vekic was blocked by Andreeva out of the round of 16. In the first round of the Wuhan Open, Vekic reversed Mertens 2-1 to advance.
The two sides met for the seventh time in their careers, with the first four games of the first set tied at 2-2 each, with Putintseva breaking first in the fifth game, and Vekic immediately breaking back to tie 3-3. Putintseva won two more games in a row, and then both sides held serve in the next two games, and Vekic dropped the first set 4-6. In the second set, Putintseva broke first, and Vekic also broke to maintain a 1-1 draw, and then both sides held serve to maintain a 3-3 tie in the next four games. Vekic broke and held serve in a row, winning three games in a row to pull back a set 6-3. In the third set, Putintseva took the lead in breaking and then holding serve to win three games in a row, and Vekic chased down 2-3 in a row. In the next four games, the two sides broke serve one after another, Putintseva completed the key break in the 10th game, and Vekki lost another set 4-6, and finally lost to Putintseva with a total score of 1-2.
Sabalenka 2-0 Siniakova
Sabalenka has ushered in the explosion of her career in the past two years, winning the Australia Open for two consecutive years, reaching the final of the US Open for two consecutive years, winning one title and one runner-up, and has won three Grand Slam titles in her career. In this year's China Open, Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals, but lost to the bitter Mukhova in the quarterfinals, and her 15-game winning streak was ended.
Sabalenka won the Wuhan Open in 2018 and 2019 for two consecutive years, but Sabalenka is the defending champion of the Wuhan Open after a four-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sabalenka's latest WTA points are 8,091 points, just 149 points away from world No. 1 Swiatek, who will overtake Swiatek to return to the world No. 1 position as long as Sabalenka reaches the semi-finals at the Wuhan Open, which she did not participate in the China Open and Wuhan Open for personal reasons.
In the match, in the first set, the two began to play very closely, and at the end of the set, Sabalenka broke successfully to take the next game with a score of 6-4. In the second set, the two held serve in the first 8 games and tied 4-4, and in the crucial 10th game, Sabalenka successfully broke serve and won another set 6-4, thus eliminating the opponent 2-0 to advance.
Krejcikova 0-2 Baptiste
Krejcikova is this year's Wimbledon champion, a two-time Grand Slam champion and the No. 7 seed at the Wuhan Open. Baptiste was a qualifier ranked outside the top 100 in the world, but Krejcikova was a big upset, losing two sets in a row with a score of 3-6 and 5-7. Krejcikova became the first high-seeded player to be eliminated at the Wuhan Open, and Baptiste defeated the world's top 10 players for the first time in his career to advance to the third round.