The Wuhan Open continues this week as Coco Gauff faces Magda Linette while Ekaterina Alexandrova goes up against Wang Xinyu in the quarter-finals. Damien Kayat previews.
2024 WTA Tour – WTA 1000
Wuhan Open
Optics Valley International Tennis Centre
Selected QF matches – 11 October
Coco Gauff 2/9 | Magda Linette 31/10
2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff has enjoyed an up-and-down season, battling serve and forehand issues along the way. She started the season in fine fashion, winning a 6th career title in Hobart before semifinal runs at the Aussie and French Opens.
However, her form gradually regressed, resulting in 4th round exits at Wimbledon and the US Open. She struggled to win a match in her North American hardcourt precursors, double-faulting for fun as her season threatened to unravel. But she was proactive, firing Brad Gilbert following her 4th round US Open loss to Emma Navarro.
She hired Matt Daly and immediately reaped the benefits, winning last week’s China Open in grand style (thrashing an in-form Muchova in the final). And she has just continued that devastating form in Wuhan, extending her winning streak to eight matches with straight sets wins over Tomova and Kostyuk.
She has won nearly 70% of her career hardcourt matches and has never lost a WTA hardcourt final.
Magda Linette continued her late-season surge with a resounding straight-sets dismantling of 8th seed Daria Kasatkina. The 2023 Aussie Open semifinalist generated some real controversy when she arrived in Wuhan, making an ii-advised Covid joke that went down like a lead balloon.
She tried to apologize for it but was roundly booed by the Wuhan crowd. She seemed to use that as fuel against Kasatkina, using her new-found aggression to surprise the versatile Russian.
Linette’s change to a more aggressive approach has yielded mixed results this season. She never won a Grand Slam match (which is criminal considering that Aussie Open semifinal run from last season). But she did pick up some strong results on the clay, reaching the final of the Open de Rouen before a victory in Prague.
And she has suddenly found her hardcourt boots in this Asian swing, reaching the round of 16 in Beijing prior to her quarterfinal run here (which happens to be her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal appearance). She hasn’t dropped a set all week but will need all aspects of her game to be firing as she comes up against the dynamic American.
The Verdict: Gauff to win in straight sets 62/100
Gauff leads the head-to-head 1-0, taking the Pole down in three sets at the 2021 US Open. This should be a relatively simple proposition for Gauff. She is playing with incredible focus right now.
She was impressive against Kostyuk, winning 80% of her first-serve points (and serving no double faults in the process). It may be worthwhile to go for under 19.5 games at 1/1 (Gauff could trounce the Pole).
Ekaterina Alexandrova 82/100 | Wang Xinyu 96/100
Mercurial Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova looked sensational in her round of 16 win over Hailey Baptiste. She used ruthless aggression to overwhelm the American 6-1, 6-1, improving her 2024 record to 26-23.
The Russian has a go-for-broke style that tends to result in insane inconsistency. But she does have a big result in her locker. This season she finished runner-up in Linz before a stunning semifinal run in Miami.
The Russian has had to negotiate a tough draw in Wuhan, taking down Sofia Kenin and 10th seed Anna Kalinskaya in two three-set thrillers. Everything just clicked into gear against Baptiste, as her ultra-aggressive style rushed the American into a plethora of errors.
The 29-year-old is playing some eye-catching tennis as she looks to reach a 3rd career WTA 1000 semifinal.
Incredible. Wang Xinyu sent the Wuhan crowd into raptures with a stunning upset win over 2nd seed Jessica Pegula. Sure, the 23-year-old Chinese player did manage to beat Pegula at Wimbledon this year. But this is hardcourt tennis, and the American has been in excellent hardcourt form these past few months.
Also, Wang had never previously beaten a top-10 player on hardcourts, improving that record to 1-3 with that win over Pegula. Wang has had a mediocre campaign (the highlight of which was clearly that 4th round Wimbledon run).
But she did win an Olympic silver medal in mixed doubles and this run has been inspirational. Like Alexandrova, Wang is all about relentless aggression. She doesn’t veer too far from the baseline, preferring to trade fearsome groundstrokes from the back of the court.
The Verdict: Alexandrova to win in straight sets 17/10
These two share the head-to-head spoils at one win apiece. Alexandrova won their most recent meeting at last year’s Tennis in the Land event. I know it’s a bit foolhardy to bank so heavily on the Russian.
She has that Ostapenko-esque ability to veer from the sublime to the ridiculous. I just think that performance against Baptiste was too good to ignore.