WTA Bronx: Qiang Wang, Anna Blinkova, karolina Muchova, Magda Linette win



by JOVICA ILIC

WTA Bronx: Qiang Wang, Anna Blinkova, karolina Muchova, Magda Linette win

The top seed Qiang Wang is through to the third quarter-final of the season with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over a qualifier Fiona Ferro in 68 minutes. The Chinese played well on both serve and return, taking the opening set with four straight breaks in less than 30 minutes, moving 6-1, 4-2 up before Ferro pulled the break back to level the score at 4-4 in set number two.

Still, that was all she could have done, with Wang taking eight of the last ten points to march over the finish line and stay in the title chase. The 20-year-old Anna Blinkova is through to the first WTA quarter-final, ousting Mihaela Buzarnescu 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes, overcoming a slow start to control the scoreboard in the remaining two sets.

Buzarnescu got broken three times in set number two and wasted an early lead in the decider to suffer two breaks and send the young Russian through. The 10th seed Karolina Muchova toppled Kristie Ahn 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 14 minutes, dropping 11 points in eight service games and facing one break point.

Ahn converted it but needed more than that, losing more than half of the points in her games and getting broken five times from 13 opportunities given to the Czech, ending her run in the second round. Delivering one good hold after another, Muchova kept the pressure on Ahn and grabbed a break in the eighth game of the opener, taking the last three games for a 6-3 and never looking back, rattling off four straight breaks in set number two to race into the next round.

A qualifier Magda Linette took down the 9th seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-4 in 68 minutes, firing ten aces and playing against only one break point in the entire match. Sasnovich couldn't follow those numbers, suffering four breaks and dropping ten of the first 12 games to propel Linette into the last eight, her second in 2019.

Qiang Wang Anna Blinkova Magda Linette