Iva Jovic and Bianca Andreescu fail to qualify for Wuhan Open after blowing one-set advantage

The top six women in the world will be challenging for glory, with Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff the favourites to win the title. Amanda Anisimova will be looking to back up her recent China Open success with back-to-back titles in China, while all the other usual suspects will be lurking in the background, awaiting their opportunity to be perched in the spotlight.

Eight of these names have come through the gruelling qualifying process. These players have to win two matches to confirm their selection in the main draw. Some of the big names have failed to come through this process, with Jovic and Andreescu unable to make the next step.

17-year-old Jovic has burst onto the scene this year, confirming herself as one of the brightest talents in the sport. Her brightest moment came in the Guadalajara Open, where she took the title in the 500 event, overcoming Colombian Emiliana Arango 6-4, 6-1 in the final.

She has already featured in numerous WTA 1000 events this year, making it to the third round in the Cincinnati Open despite losing in her final qualifying match. Coincidentally, that was against Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva, who would repeat the process in Wuhan against the young American, beating her 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Jovic took the premature advantage, sweeping the final four games of the first set to move herself into a very advantageous position. The next four games would go to her opponent, who stormed into a 4-0 lead in the second set. Jovic would sandwich a break between two key holds to move herself within one game of Gracheva, but she could not muster up enough of a challenge to dispose the Frenchwoman, who forced a last-set decider.

It took a lot less time for Gracheva to seal the match. Once again, she broke very early and broke again near the end to make it 5-2, giving Jovic a very steep hill to climb. She would not mount any late pressure, with Gracheva winning the last four points to confirm her place in the Wuhan Open.

It was also not to be for the 2019 US Open winner Andreescu, who lost a three-set clash against Anastasia Zakharova, with the Russian winning 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-3.

The match lasted just over three hours, with only 35 minutes of them coming in a first set routing from the Canadian. After Zakharova levelled affairs at 1-1, Andreescu battered her opponent by clinching the next five games to comfortably win set one.

It looked like it could have been a similar story in the following set, with Andreescu 3-0 and a double break to the good, possibly already thinking of her first main draw match in Wuhan. Her opponent had other ideas, putting the game back on serve three games later. The two-time WTA 1000 winner looked to have stolen a definitive break, as she sprant into a 5-3 lead, preparing to see the tie out. Events would not culminate like so, with the world number 87 once again finding a way back in the match.

It finally reached a tiebreak, where the Canadian saved two set points. She could not muster any match points of her own up and was eventually brought back down to earth when Zakharova took her third set point to level the match.

The tie would fall away from Andreescu’s grasp, as she had her serve broken before falling into a 4-2 deficit. Zakharova won the match on the Canadian’s serve, confirming her name to be in the Wuhan Open.