No.1 seed Aryna Sabalenka maintained her undefeated record at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open on Wednesday, while also picking up a milestone win in her exceptional 2024 season.

Wuhan:  Scores | Schedule | Draws

Two-time defending champion Sabalenka opened her latest Wuhan campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory over 37th-ranked Katerina Siniakova.

After her first-round bye, Sabalenka reclaimed her winning ways by toppling WTA Doubles World No.1 Siniakova in 1 hour and 34 minutes of play.

“Happy to be back in Wuhan,” Sabalenka said after her win. “Siniakova, who is fighting for every point, it’s really good that I was able to finish this match in two sets.”

Posting big numbers: World No.2 Sabalenka is now up to 13-0 in Wuhan throughout her career. She won the title in her maiden appearance in 2018, then defended her crown in 2019 before the tournament took its five-year hiatus from the calendar.

“I missed Wuhan a lot,” Sabalenka said. “I just have really good memories of winning, two times, the title here. Just Wuhan brings me a lot of great memories, good vibes.”

Sabalenka also notched her 50th tour-level win of the year by beating Siniakova. Sabalenka trails only Iga Swiatek in tour-level match-wins for the year, and she edges closer to top-ranked Swiatek in their showdown for the year-end World No.1 spot in the PIF WTA Singles Rankings.

“I love having this competition and I love seeing [Swiatek] in the draw,” Sabalenka said. “I love to, like, get to the finals and face her in the finals. It’s always great battles. I always enjoy fights against her.

“Hopefully we can play against each other there in the [WTA Finals Riyadh], put it into a fight for World No.1. That’s ideal. I’m trying to focus on myself and make sure that I play my best tennis and make sure I still have this opportunity to become World No.1 at the end of the year.”

This year’s Australian Open and US Open champion, Sabalenka is hoping to start a new run of victories as the season comes to a close. She had a 15-match winning streak snapped by Karolina Muchova in last week’s Beijing quarterfinals.

Putintseva next up: Sabalenka’s Round of 16 opponent will be 35th-ranked Yulia Putintseva, who eliminated No.15 seed Donna Vekic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 earlier on Wednesday.

Sabalenka and Putintseva have faced off only once before, and Putintseva won that match in straight sets back at the 2019 US Open.

Match moments: Sabalenka saw a 4-2 lead in Wednesday’s first set slip away as Siniakova got back on serve in the next game. However, Sabalenka grabbed two set points at 5-4, and Siniakova fired her second double fault of the set to cede the lead to the reigning titleholder.

Fierce forehands gave Sabalenka a quick 2-0 lead in the second set, but she double faulted that advantage away, and Siniakova again kept pace with the top seed throughout the set. At 5-4, though, Sabalenka found some of her strongest returns to garner two match points.

On her second match point, Sabalenka closed out the win with a winning backhand — her 21st winner of the day to Siniakova’s 14. Sabalenka also converted four of her 12 break points, while Siniakova went 2-for-8.