Jessica Pegula was broken twice in the third set but equaled Hailey Baptiste in a tight decider on Wednesday to advance to the Wuhan Open.
The sixth-seeded Pegula defeated her American compatriot 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) on the seventh match point to advance to the third round.
Pegula, who lost in the semifinals of the China Open last week, will next face ninth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who defeated American Ang Lee 7-6(5), 6-2.
After losing to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova in the China Open semifinals, third-ranked Coco Gauff easily advanced to the next round with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Uchishima Moyuka in 51 minutes.
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No. 11 Osaka defeated unseeded Linda Noskova 7-6 (2), 6-3. The 20-year-old Czech player was defeated by Anisimova in the China Open final on Sunday.
Noskova, ranked 17th, will next face either Jacqueline Christian or Elena Rybakina.
No. 16 Lyudmila Samsonova regrouped and defeated 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, while qualifier Katerina Siniakova defeated Maya United 6-3, 6-1.
In the third round, Samsonova will face U.S. Open champion Sabalenka, who defeated Rebecca Slamkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Top-ranked Sabalenka achieved amazing results in Wuhan. She had an 18-0 record when winning titles in 2018, 2019 and 2024. After her second consecutive win at Flushing Meadows, she was on holiday in Greece and withdrew from last week's China Open, another WTA 1000-level event.
“I knew after that short break… it wasn't going to be easy to get back into rhythm. I'm really happy that in the second set I found my game and stepped in and I thought I played really well,” Sabalenka said. “I'm very happy to be back. I won a lot of games in China. It feels like home in this stadium and I really hope I can go all the way.”
Sabalenka broke her 68th-ranked opponent in the first set of the final and won her second match point in nearly two hours.
After Slamkova broke Sabalenka twice to win the first set, Sabalenka started a counterattack with a break in the fourth game of the second set, leading 4-1. She saved four break points in the seventh game.
Karolina Muchova became the latest player to succumb to the heat and humidity, withdrawing from the match while trailing Magdalena Frech 7-6 (1), 4-1.
The Associated Press and the Palestinian Authority contributed to this report.