WUHAN, China — Ashleigh Barty and Wang Qiang both reached the semifinals at the Wuhan Open on Thursday.
Barty, last year’s runner-up, won four of the last five games to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Wang defeated Olympic champion Monica Puig 6-3, 6-1 to become the first Chinese player to reach the semifinals in the event’s five-year history.
Barty is now 5-1 in quarterfinals matches this year, her only loss coming at Eastbourne to eventual champion Caroline Wozniacki. She will next face Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated 2016 runner-up Dominika Cibulkova 7-5, 6-3.
Wang broke Puig six times and saved seven of the eight break points she faced. She will next face Anett Kontaveit, who beat Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 6-4.
This article was originally published by Espn.com. Read the original article here.