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<\/a><\/p>\nThree-time champion Sabalenka improved to 18-0 lifetime in Wuhan, but it wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it would be not easy after the break to get into my rhythm but I am glad in the second set I found my game, I stepped in and I played really great,\u201d said Sabalenka, who played her first match since her September 6th US Open final win over Amanda Anisimova.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to say she played incredible tennis, especially in the first set and there was not much I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world No. 1 had to shake off the rust as Sramkova, who belted nine aces today, built a one-set lead and played with conviction.<\/p>\n
Empowered by her run to her fourth career major championship in Flushing Meadows, Sabalenka staved off nine of 11 break points today.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka won eight of the first 10 points played on her serve in the second set then broke for a 3-1 second-set lead. From there, the top-seeded Belarusian burst through seven of the last eight games.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka raised her 2025 record to 57-10.<\/p>\n
The owner of nine WTA 1000 championships, Sabalenka will face Liudmila Samsonova in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
The 16th-seeded Samsonova smacked 12 aces against two double faults in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said she\u2019s embraced massive fan support and ongoing success in Wuhan.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sabalenka-Selfie-WuhanOpen-CVG.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Wuhan Open\/CVG<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst I was \u2018Daughter of China\u2019, then \u2018Queen of Fried Rice\u2019, \u201d Sabalenka said of her Wuhan nicknames.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I talked to Qinwen and they actually call me \u2018Tiger\u2019. So many nicknames. I won so many tournaments here and it feels like home, I hope I can go all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, October 8, 2025Photo credit: Wang He\/Getty Aryna Sabalenka worked overtime in her return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-197717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}