The WTA 1000 Wuhan Open reaches its quarterfinal stage with two blockbuster clashes featuring Friday's Action in China. Top two women's racquets play against players who race against each other for the last spot guaranteeing qualification to WTA Finals. Aryna Sabalenka looks for to extend her unbeaten record in Wuhan against in-form Elena Rybakina. Iga Swiatek meets Jasmine Paolini, who did not find a way to defeat the Pole in their 7 previous matches. 6 out of 8 top seeds approached the quarterfinals alongside two surprises. Katerina Siniakova comes back to quarterfinals of WTA 1000 after 7 years to play against Jessica Pegula. The 37 years-old Laura Siegemund meets Coco Gauff. Here is the full preview of quarterfinals with storylines and statistical breakdown.
Sabalenka vs. Rybakina
The top half of main draw was considered as absolutely stacked since the reveal and gets complemented by the pinnacle of competition in that section, which surely is the blockbuster clash between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina. The world number one and reigning Wuhan champion extended her unbeaten record in Wuhan to 19 after her comprehensive victory over 16th seed Liudmila Samsonova. That match was way different to quite a rusty start against Rebecca Sramkova, where the recent US Open champion needed to come back from losing the poorly performed first set. This time, Sabalenka showed a dominant performance, controlling the course of match in both sets, not giving her opponent any serious chances during service games. She faced just 4 pressure points, winning all of them with no breakpoints chances for Samsonova. 77% of first serve and excellent 81% of second serve complements the ultimate performance of Sabalenka who looks fresh and same well shaped as during her victorious campaign in Flushing Meadows.
Elena Rybakina plays under pressure in Wuhan, related with a very tight contest for qualification spots to WTA Finals. Just a minimal margin differs her and Jasmine Paolini for 8th and last spot, which raises up the pressure in each match played by both players. Rybakina bounced back after early upset in Beijing faced from Eva Lys, coming back to her highest gears in Wuhan so far. The Kazakh is yet to lose a service game and faced no breakpoints yet in the tournament after matches against Jaqueline Cristian and Linda Noskova. The latter battle was considered as a hit clash of round of 16, following the great run of the Czech who was a finalist of China Open just a few days before start of competition in Wuhan. Noskova approached that match with huge workload from recent days and had no answers for the game presented by well-disposed Rybakina.
The 26-year-old was putting constant pressure on her opponent, producing 12 breakpoints. Rybakina was quite wasteful with the opportunities gained, but two breaks was just enough, related to excellent serving performance with just 8 pressure points faced and all won at the day. Rybakina fired 19 aces and scored more than 85% of first serve in both matches played so far. That looks like a comeback to great form displayed by the Kazakh during the American hard courts campaign, where she advanced to three consecutive semifinals.
That match is another chapter of exciting rivalry between both top tier players, where Sabalenka leads H2H with 8 wins in 14 encounters. This year's quarterfinal in WTA 500 Berlin on grass was probably the most dramatic of those. Rybakina was leading by 6-2 in decisive tiebreak after three grueling sets. The Belarusian performed a huge comeback almost out of nowhere, winning by 8-6 which was an absolutely gutting defeat suffered by Rybakina. The Kazakh showed up great in their next meeting in Cincinnati though, winning by 6-1 6-4 displaying her trademark of serving performance which Sabalenka had no serious answers for. This is promised to be an exciting clash between fresh and well rested Sabalenka against great performing Rybakina who plays under additional pressure related with race to Riyadh.
Swiatek vs. Paolini
Jasmine Paolini lives a great time with 15 wins in last 18 matches played started from her run into final in Cincinnati two months ago. That included the title defence in BJKC Finals for Italy and recent run into quarterfinals in Beijing. However, two first matches played by the Italian in Wuhan were far from perfect. Paolini needed to come back from a set down in tough match against Yue Yuan who was serving very well since the start. Paolini's experience has came out on top on the longer distance, avoiding the early exit which would be a huge harm for her WTA Finals race. Another tough challenge was a match against Clara Tauson on Thursday. The Dane started off very well, winning first set by 6-3 including excellent 100% of second serve points won (8/8). The level of Tauson has massively dropped in second set though, as she started to struggle physically. The medical time out did not fix the issues and the world number 12 withdrew, trailing by 6-3 1-6 1-3. That keeps Paolini's lead in the race for last qualified place to WTA Finals with marginal gap of 43 points over Rybakina. No other player than those two has mathematical chances to advance after Thursday.
The world number two and top seed of bottom half Iga Swiatek cruised into quarterfinals being yet to lose a set after matches against Marie Bouzkova and Belinda Bencic. Swiatek faced the Swiss on Thursday in quite a shaky match which was about to be a revenge for their recent meeting in semifinals of Wimbledon. Swiatek blew off the court her opponent there, winning by 6-2 6-0, moving into eventually won final, winning last 8 games in a row. The Pole has extended that series over Bencic to 11, noting a strong start of today's match in Wuhan. However, the momentum has switched a few times since then. Bencic raised up her level to move up 5-4 from this, but failed to serve for a set which got settled in tiebreak for Swiatek's favor. Second set started reversely with Bencic's early advantage, but it was Swiatek who performed a turnover this time to get the win by 7-6(2) 6-4 after two competitive sets played in time over two hours.
Despite losing control of that match at some points, it was an impressive performance of Swiatek related to stats. The Pole has scored an unexpected amount of aces as for player of her profile. Swiatek records 3 aces per match on average in 2025, while she fired 8 against Bencic on Thursday. 80% of first serve points is another excellent stat, much more than average 70% on the course of whole year.
Iga Swiatek is an extremely unpleasant match-up for Jasmine Paolini. The current world number two won all their 7 encounters, dropping just one set. Those were mostly the high stake matches, including last year's final of Roland Garros ended up with one-sided victory of Swiatek (6-2 6-1) and recent meeting in final of WTA 1000 Cincinnati, also won in straights (7-5 6-4) by Swiatek. Considering Paolini's struggles in Wuhan so far, breaking this rot of losses will be a difficult task to accomplish, however she needs to do the best possible for sake of helping her WTA Finals bid.
Pegula vs. Siniakova
Jessica Pegula continues her Asian swing trademarked with tight three-sets battles, prevailing over Ekaterina Alexandrova by 7-5 3-6 6-3. This time, apart from some of previous battles, the match did not include any crazy comebacks, setpoints and matchpoints wasted on any side, but was another eventful match played on whole distance by the American which was her 6th three-setter in a row. Alexandrova settled firmly in the opening set, but wasted the 5-2 lead, losing 5 games in a row to Pegula. That has not discouraged the Russian, as she came back from 0-40 in the opening game of second set and stayed in contention, winning that set with one and only break gained in decisive games. Alexandrova followed the flow after start of third set, putting the pressure on Pegula which got rewarded with a break lead after three games. Then, Pegula clicked the gears performing another comeback similar to first set, and won the whole contest by 7-5 3-6 6-3. That means the remarkable achievement with advancing into 10th quarterfinal in the year - another proof of great consistency of the American.
For Alexandrova, that defeat ultimately writes off her chances of qualifying to WTA Finals, despite sitting at 10th spot in the race. The sweet consolation prize is, in turn, the first career's advance to top 10 of official WTA Rankings, as Alexandrova overtakes Qinwen Zheng at 10th spot next Monday with no more players having chance to jump her.
Katerina Siniakova, very well known as a great doubles specialist, plays the campaign which is an absolute highlight of her singles season so far. Siniakova approaches quarterfinals as a qualifier with 5 consecutive straight sets wins, with three exciting new-generation prospects being defeated on the road. Siniakova started her main draw from a win over world number 18 Diana Shnaider, the recent champ of WTA 500 in Monterrey. She followed that with winning over two youngsters - crushing the champ of WTA 500 in Eastbourne Maya Joint by 6-3 6-1, and another teenager who took the crown in WTA 500 Guadalajara last month - Iva Jovic by 7-5 6-3. It's a continuation of good run of form started already in Seoul last month, where Siniakova made into semifinal. Interestingly, it's her third WTA 1000 quarterfinal run in whole career and 3rd in China, while the last one happened in 2018.
Pegula has won 4 out of 5 matches played against Siniakova, including the recent series of three wins in a row. The world number six does not play her A game in Wuhan and might be quite fatigued after the series of exhausting matches played in short notice, which might be well challenged by Siniakova who displayed her hottest form in singles competition since a long time. Siniakova needs to put her best performance, especially on serve which is her liability in longer perspective - Pegula won 75% of service games on hard courts in 2025 to just 63% won by Siniakova. Pegula wins 7.5% more second serve points as well, which might be the area to gain for the American.
Gauff vs. Siegemund
Laura Siegemund is another sensational quarterfinalist alongside Katerina Siniakova. The 37-year-old German achieves her second huge highlight in 2025. Siegemund has a negative record of 14-15 in WTA Tour main draw matches this year, but her up-and-down season contains two great achievements - the run into quarterfinals of Wimbledon and this week's success in Wuhan. Siegemund was already a headline of the week, making a huge upset over the world number 5 Mirra Andreeva. Siegemund followed that with round of 16 win over Magdalena Frech. The Pole edged Veronika Kudermetova and Karolina Muchova in brutal heat conditions on outer courts, while the Czech withdrew while trailing to Frech in second set. The last year's quarterfinalist from Wuhan could earn another victory while leading 4-1 in both sets, but Siegemund won 5 games in a row to clinch the first set and secured the victory in tiebreak of second one - 6-4 7-6(2). That was not a pretty match with both players being far from getting a good rhythm on the longer perspective, however it was the veteran who endured this fight to book place in quarterfinals.
Coco Gauff is yet to be really challenged during the week in Wuhan, securing the quarterfinals spot after two straight sets victories over Moyuka Uchijima and Shuai Zhang. The Wednesday's performance against the home favorite was quite comfortable in terms of controlling the scoreline, but not as splendid as in first match against the Japanese qualifier. Gauff came back to her recent standards, as she committed 6 double faults, after the match when she avoided gifting any free point on serve for the first time this season. Zhang was able to break the American's serve twice, being competitive at the start of both sets, but the world number three has run away with the score by 6-3 6-2. The draw looks very formidable for this year's Roland Garros champion, especially in compare to blockbuster clashes from top half of the draw. Siegemund should not cause Gauff any trouble on paper, however the potential semifinal clash against Swiatek or Paolini will surely be an entertaining one to watch. Gauff met the experienced German two times so far. Both matches came to three sets, but quite a long time ago. Siegemund won their first match in Auckland 2020, Gauff came back from a set down in second round of US Open 2023, on the road to first Grand Slam title in her career.
