Latvia's Elena Ostapenko reached the semi-finals of the Wuhan 1000-point tournament, defeating 11th-seeded Russian Diana Schneider with a score of 7-6 (8-6) and 6-1 on Friday in the quarter-finals.
Ostapenko saved two points to decide the first set in her opponent's favor in the eighth game after she was trailing 2-5, before she came back strong and imposed a tie at 5-5 and then 6-6, by breaking the Russian's serve in the ninth game in response to losing her serve in the sixth game.
Latvia imposed its superiority in the tie-break, but almost lost it after giving up its lead twice, 3-1 and then 6-3. The Russian equalized on two occasions (3-3 and 6-6), before Ostapenko won two consecutive points and finished in her favor 8-6, thus the first set in 67 minutes.
The task was easy in the second set for Ostapenko, and she won it 6-1 in 37 minutes, after she broke Schneider’s serve in the second and sixth games, and achieved the first victory in their first confrontation between them.
Ostapenko reached the semi-finals of one of the Thousand Points tournaments for the second time in 2026 after the Doha tournament, and she also qualified for the semi-finals in Wuhan for the second time also after her campaign in 2017.
In the next round, Ostapenko will meet Britain's Sonay Kartal, who continued her surprises by defeating Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, fifth, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
Svitolina became the third victim of Kartal, ranked 170th in the world, after Swiss Belinda Bencic, ninth, and Italian Jazmine Paulina, 15th.
Svitolina also joined the world's most prominent women who bid farewell to the tournament early, led by Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, American Jessica Pegula, Czech Karolina Muchova, and American Iva Jovic.
It was Kartal's first victory over Svitolina in 3 confrontations between them, and ended her participation in a tournament she returned to for the first time since 2019 when she reached the quarter-finals.
Kartal is playing only its third tournament since returning from a six-month absence due to injury, and has not dropped a set in its three matches so far, including another upset win over ninth seed, Belinda Bencic.
Svitolina and Kartal met at the beginning of the year in the Auckland tournament, where the match witnessed an equal struggle that ended with the Ukrainian woman narrowly winning 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), and 7-6 (7-5).
Later, Poland's Iga Szwiłtek, seventh, will play with American Anne Lee, and her compatriot Maya Hwalinska, 16th and runner-up in this year's French Open, will meet Greek Maria Sakkari.
Italian Juventus achieved a difficult victory over its Spanish host Celta Vigo, 2-1, on Thursday evening, in the second round of the European League stage.
Celta Vigo took the lead in the 18th minute through Hugo Alvarez, then Juventus equalized in the 59th minute through Nick Wohltmadhe. In the second minute of stoppage time in the second half, Randall Kolo Mwani scored the second goal for Juventus.
Juventus raised its score to six points to lead the league standings, after it had started its campaign with a landslide victory over Dutch Nijmegen 5-0.
On the other hand, Celta Vigo remains without points in 29th place, after losing to Omonia of Cyprus with a clean goal in the first round.
The difficult victory over Celta Vigo came to alleviate the crises surrounding coach Luciano Spalletti, who is suffering from many criticisms from the media and fans, and may leave the team according to press reports that speculated that he would soon leave his position, as he is approaching his first year as coach of the team, as he took over his training in November of last year, succeeding Croatian Igor Tudor.
Marseille fell for the second match in a row, this time at home to Olympiacos of Greece, 0-1, with a goal by Argentine Santiago Haze (42). The nine-time French champion is experiencing his worst days, as he suffered his sixth loss in the last seven matches in various competitions, which placed him in thirteenth place in the league with only six points after six stages.
French Rennes emerged victorious against its Greek guest, OFI, 2-1, thanks to a late goal scored by Moroccan Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal (90). Lyon achieved an important victory over its guest, Crystal Palace, 3-2.
Palace coach Pierre Sage said: “It is a very disappointing return because we lost.” “I cannot be satisfied just to come home or see familiar faces when the result is not our way.” He added to the European Football Association (UEFA) website: “The result may have been close, but there was a big difference in the way the two teams played. “We were not at all close to our usual level in the first half.”
In turn, Bayer Leverkusen of Germany defeated its host Lech Poznan of Poland 4-0, and Benfica of Portugal won by four goals to one over its guest Celtic of Scotland.
In other notable results, English Sunderland snatched a fatal victory over Torense, Portugal, 2-1, and Sparta Prague, Czech Republic, fell into a 1-1 draw against Sturm Graz, Austria. English Bournemouth also defeated its guest, Sturm Graz, Austria, 3-0. Saint-Geloise, Belgium, tied with Real Sociedad, Spain, 1-1, while Hoffenheim, Germany, faced Besiktas, Turkey, 2-3.
