Coco Gauff has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open with a 6-4, 6-1 rout of 17th-ranked Marta Kostyuk in just over an hour on Thursday.
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It was the fourth-ranked Gauff’s eighth consecutive win on the WTA Tour’s Asian swing after the American won the China Open last week, a win that moved her back into the top five in the rankings.
Gauff fired two aces and broke the Ukrainian’s serve five times – for the loss of one of her own – as she clinched a one-sided match and extended her lead in their head-to-head series to 3-1.
“I’m really happy with how I played today,” Gauff said. “It was a pretty straightforward match. Marta and I always have some good battles. Today I was able to get through in straight sets.”
Gauff will be the only American left in the draw after third-ranked Jessica Pegula and tour rookie Hailey Baptiste both lost.
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Pegula, the US Open finalist, had a tough afternoon against the 51st-ranked Wang Xinyu of China, who was dominant on serve throughout and clinched a 6-3, 7-5 win to make her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal.
Wang had won their only previous meeting in three sets in the second round at Wimbledon earlier this year and got off to a fast start here by breaking Pegula twice in the opening set to take the lead.
