Aryna Sabalenka was on the verge of being knocked out on Thursday but she showed tremendous heart to fightback and overcome Yulia Putintseva to earn a quarter-final clash with Magdalena Frech
RANKING POINTS: WTA 1000
START DATE/TIME: Friday 11th October, 2024, UK – not before 8:00am / US ET – not before 3:00am / US PT – not before 0:00am
VENUE: Optics Valley International Tennis Centre
SURFACE: Outdoor hard
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – Sky Sports Tennis / US – Tennis Channel
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – Sky Go / US – Tennis Channel
ARYNA SABALENKA VS MAGDALENA FRECH PREDICTION
Top seed Aryna Sabalenka looked to be exiting the Wuhan Open in her round of 16 match as Yulia Putintseva was in control and won the first set 6-1. Sabalenka showed impressive strength of mind to fightback and win the next two sets 6-4 6-0 despite being far from her best.
Sabalenka won this tournament in 2018 and 2019 and there are signs once again that she could go all the way. The draw has been relatively favourable to her and she now meets Magdalena Frech who she will expect to beat.
The 26-year-old Pole is in fine form herself however and she has reached her highest world ranking position of her career this week. Sat at number 27 in the world, she has backed that up with some good wins in Wuhan including a battling victory over Emma Navarro and then then Beatriz Haddad Maia in the round of 16 on Thursday.
It is hard to imagine Sabalenka will be off form two days in a row and we expect an improvement from her. That should be enough for her to get the win and progress but she will have to be on her game against the in-form Frech.
ARYNA SABALENKA VS MAGDALENA FRECH TIP: ARYNA SABALENKA TO WIN