China’s best to play Ukrainian teen for Hong Kong WTA title
HONG KONG (AP) — Wang Qiang, the best Chinese women’s player in tennis with a ranking of No. 24, will play Ukrainian teen Dayana Yastremska for a third career title at the Hong Kong Open on Sunday.
Wang posted two upset victories on Saturday by first finishing her rain-postponed quarterfinal against top-seeded Elina Svitolina and winning 6-2, 6-4. The victory over the fifth-ranked Svitolina marked Wang’s first career win over a top-five player.
Then, Wang upset fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 to earn passage into the final.
Wang has been posting impressive results since mid-July. She won her first two WTA career titles at Nanchang and Guangzhou, and also was a semifinalist at Hiroshima, Wuhan, and Beijing.
Insight by the Anomali: Justice Department, DODIN, DHS and IT-ISAC explore cyber threat intelligence in this free webinar.
Wang trailed Muguruza 4-1 in the final set, but showed determination to rally to win the nearly three-hour encounter.
Yastremska reached her first career final after defeating 40th-ranked Zhang Shuai of China 7-5, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
The 18-year-old Yastremska is the sixth teenager this year and fourth born in this century to reach a WTA final.
Yastremska was 1-6 in WTA main-draw matches this year before Hong Kong, but has won four consecutive straight-set matches to advance to the final.
The 102nd-ranked Ukrainian’s best previous result at a WTA-level tournament was the Istanbul quarterfinals last year.
Yastremska rebounded from a break down in both sets to come through against Zhang.
OPM announces first batch of civil service changes, ‘more to come’
Svitolina entered this week as one of five players still in contention to earn a place in the eight-player year-end WTA Finals in Singapore.
She could still qualify for the WTA Finals, but would have to request and be granted a wild card to play a tournament this coming week to secure a place in Singapore.
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
0 Comments