{"id":927015,"date":"2026-10-13T20:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927015\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T20:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:20:10","slug":"guos-wuhan-upset-carries-deeper-meaning-samsonova-putintseva-win-thrillers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927015\/","title":{"rendered":"Guo’s Wuhan upset carries deeper meaning; Samsonova, Putintseva win thrillers"},"content":{"rendered":"

WUHAN — Day 2 of the Dongfeng \u2022 Voyah Wuhan Open brought several three-set thrillers, highlighted by Guo Hanyu’<\/a>s 1-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 upset of No. 12 seed Sorana Cirstea in 2 hours and 41 minutes. Guo saved three match points and came back from a set and 4-0 down.<\/p>\n

The World No. 240 earned her second WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz 1000 singles win and her first tour-level main-draw victory since Jiujiang in 2025. By ranking, it’s the biggest win of her career, and she’s the lowest ranked player to defeat a top 20 opponent at the Wuhan Open since the tournament’s inception in 2014 — Cirstea is ranked No. 16.<\/p>\n

But Tuesday’s win had much more meaning for Guo. Following her first Grand Slam doubles title at Wimbledon this summer with Kristina Mladenovic, she learned that her father became seriously ill and is in the intensive care unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s really difficult for me when I come back home,” Guo said. “I try to accompany my dad, I try to do something about it. Knowing this actually made me feel quite helpless.<\/p>\n

“No matter what kind of efforts you make, for myself I’m kind of struggling recently because mentally, psychologically I always feel something. I cannot just have a happy moment on the court and enjoy the game. I will always have a kind of sorrow, so that’s why I made a lot of efforts.<\/p>\n

“Today’s match in the third set, it was such a thing of another close loss. This kind of close loss is always painful. I always try to tell myself that I try to be myself and leave it to the fate. If God really wants me go for this in my tennis game all I can do is try my 100% on the court and see what is the result.”<\/p>\n

Absolute scenes in Wuhan \ud83d\ude32 Guo Hanyu with an unbelievable comeback to defeat Cirstea! #dongfengvoyahwuhanopen https:\/\/t.co\/rBBfMq55ud<\/p>\n

\u2014 wta (@WTA) October 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Wimbledon, Guo had only played a total of four tournaments in singles and doubles combined. Her personal situation made it difficult to enjoy her success at Wimbledon, and today’s win was a bright spot in a difficult period in her life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guo will next face qualifier Katie Volynets, who went toe-to-toe with Australia’s Kimberly Birrell. Volynets overcame a dropped first-set tiebreak to defeat Birrell 6-7(1), 7-6(3), 6-3 in 3 hours and 6 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samsonova gets past valiant Siniakova<\/p>\n

Liudmila Samsonova started the order of play Tuesday on Center Court against Katerina Siniakova in their fifth overall meeting. Initially, Samsonova seemed like she’d cruise to victory, dropping just one game in the opening set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, Siniakova, who seemed a bit under the weather stormed back and forced a decider. Samsonova ultimately advanced to the second round, and will next face No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina. She also now holds a slim 3-2 advantage in the head to head.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If you give her a little bit of time to play, she plays very, very well,” Samsonova said to press. “She has a lot of talent and she can let you play very bad. Today, the goal was not to let her play so much, honestly. So I am so happy about the level that I showed up.”<\/p>\n

Samsonova said that because she didn’t string too many matches consecutive at tournaments in the first half of the year, she feels quite fresh and energetic for the remainder of the Asian Swing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of her best results have come since the switch back to hard courts, reaching the fourth round in Toronto and the semifinals in Guadalajara.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samsonova wins three-set rollercoaster vs. Siniakova in Wuhan first round<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a quiet six months of the year,” Samsonova said. “Now I’m starting to actually play better, so for me, I have a little bit more energy because I didn’t play so much at the beginning, like not many matches, so at the end, I didn’t spend so much energy.<\/p>\n

“It’s a different end of the season for me because I still have a bit of energy and I will play till the end if my body permits.”<\/p>\n

Following Wuhan, Samsonova will play in Osaka and is also in the qualifying draw for Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Putintseva wins derby with Sonmez<\/p>\n

Putintseva edges Sonmez in 2:51 Wuhan first-round thriller<\/p>\n

The last time Yulia Putintseva and Zeynep Sonmez played, it was quite the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Australian Open in January, Putintseva won 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3 in 2 hours and 34 minutes over Sonmez, but her biggest opponent turned out to be the crowd. The overwhelming majority of supporters were rooting for Sonmez, and after Putintseva secured victory, she put on a mini dance show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Putintseva said that in order to navigate the crowd, she sang a song in her head about rabbits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two met for the first time since the Australian Open in Wuhan’s first round. Tuesday was a much more mellow crowd, but the drama on the court was still there as Putintseva prevailed 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-5 in 2 hours and 51 minutes thriller.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Kazakh will face No. 11 seed Diana Shnaider in the second round Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WUHAN — Day 2 of the Dongfeng \u2022 Voyah Wuhan Open brought several three-set thrillers, highlighted by Guo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747,83],"class_list":["post-927015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927015","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=927015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}