WTA: Chinese Festival and a Mad Comeback by Sabalenka

While Zhang Shuai and Qiang Wang are thrilling the local fans in Beijing, the strong run of Aryna Sabalenka almost came to an end.

The local fans at the Olympic Stadium in Beijing can be happy – after Zhang Shuai, who beat Angelique Kerber in the second match of the day, Qiang Wang also made it to the quarter-finals of the last WTA Premier Mandatory tournament of the year. Wang, who had entered the tournament with a wild card, defeated Pliskova 6-4 and 6-4 at prime time in the Chinese capital Karolina.

Pliskova had started her personal Asian tour with the tournament victory in Tokyo.

While Zhang now has to compete with US Open winner Naomi Osaka in the round of the last eight, Aryna Sabalenka is now waiting for Wang. The Belarusian made a fabulous comeback against defending champion Caroline Garcia, was back 2-5 in the second set after losing the first set, but then she not only equalised with a lot of effort, but did not lose a single game in the decision.

The final score of 5:7, 7:6 (3) and 6:0 allows 20-year-old Sabalenka, who celebrated the greatest success of her career last week in Wuhan, to dream about her first participation in the WTA finals in Singapore.

Here the single tableau of the ladies in Peking