WUHAN: World number one Aryna Sabalenka raced into a fourth consecutive Wuhan Open quarter-final Thursday, having revealed she spent time on holiday last month practising with Novak Djokovic.

She was joined by Iga Swiatek, who reached her 25th WTA 1000 quarter-final with a hard-fought 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 win over Belinda Bencic, and Coco Gauff, who ended the inspired run of Chinese wildcard Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-2.

Sabalenka, in contrast to her rusty start against Rebecca Sramkova the day before, came out firing from the get-go to blow away Russia’s world number 20 Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2.

The Belarusian, whose unbeaten match run in Wuhan extended to 19-0 as she seeks a fourth straight title, took a month off after winning her fourth Grand Slam title at the US Open in early September.

She went on holiday to Greece, where she spent time hitting with former number one Djokovic, who is a resident there.

“We went for dinner. We practised a couple times,” Sabalenka told reporters. “I hope I was a great hitting partner. So far, he’s winning in Shanghai, so I guess I was.”

Top seed Sabalenka did not face a break point and wrapped up the win in 75 minutes and will face former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the last eight.

Poland’s Swiatek will face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini for a place in the semi-finals.

“I wanted to play with confidence and make great decisions because against Belinda, you can’t let her dictate, so I really tried to do that,” said Swiatek. “It was super hard and every game was tough, that’s why it was two sets and over two hours.

Bencic erased an early 3-0 deficit and served for the opening set at 5-4 before Swiatek halted the momentum and clinched it in a tiebreak after 72 minutes.

The second set was also a tug of war but six-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek proved the steadier.

Rybakina, who is chasing a WTA Finals berth, knocked out last week’s Beijing runner-up Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-4.

Gauff returned to the Wuhan quarter-finals with a 60-minute rout of Zhang, who at 142 in the world and 36 years of age defeated Emma Navarro and Sorana Cirstea on her way to the last 16. Gauff will take on Germany’s Laura Siegemund next.

Seventh seed Paolini survived a barrage of winners from Denmark’s Clara Tauson, who took the opening set before retiring with a right thigh injury when trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-1.

Paolini later withdrew from her doubles last-16 citing a gastrointestinal illness.

Jessica Pegula was made to battle through three sets for the second day running as she also reached the quarter-finals.

The American sixth seed spent almost three hours on court against Hailey Baptiste on Wednesday.

She needed more than two hours a day later to move past Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 and book a last-eight meeting with Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2025