China Open: Red-hot Badosa stuns Pegula to reach last eight

Spaniard Paula Badosa, the No 15 seed, stunned American Jessica Pegula, the second seed, 6-4, 6-0 to move into the quarter-finals of the China Open on Tuesday.

Pegula, who had won all three meetings between the two players previously, started off with an early break to lead 3-1. But the Spaniard, who has bounced back into the world’s top 20 after a successful summer hardcourt season, levelled the match at 3-3.

She won the last eight games of the match in a row to complete the straight sets win and reach the quarters in Beijing on her main draw debut.

This was her first top 10 win of the 2024 season and she has now won 17 of her last 20 matches on tour.

Badosa, ranked No 19, will face the winner of the match between Chinese wildcard Shuai Zhang and Pole Magdalena Frech, the No 23 seed, next at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.

The Spaniard dedicated her win to her father, who was watching from the stands. Badosa added during her on-court interview that her father does not usually travel to tournaments and it was special to win with him in the stands, expressing her gratitude for him helping her reach where she has in her career.

The Spaniard defeated Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova (6-3, 6-2) and Slovak qualifier Rebecca Sramkova (7-5, 7-5) ahead of her wins today.

In the previous rounds of the tournament, Pegula, ranked No 3, beat Frenchwoman Diane Parry (6-1, 7-6 (4)) and Russian Veronika Kudermetova, the No 32 seed (6-7 (9), 6-1, 6-2).

Beijing WTA 1000, other round of 16 results (National Tennis Center, hard, USD 8.955,610):

• Amanda Anisimova vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Magda Linette vs. Mirra Andreeva
• Cristina Bucsa vs. Karolina Muchova
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Madison Keys
• Naomi Osaka vs. Coco Gauff
• Yuliia Starodubtseva vs. Anna Kalinskaya
• Shuai Zhang vs. Magdalena Frech

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