By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Photo credit: Wuhan Open/CVG
Erupting in a resounding roar, Jessica Pegula had cause for celebration in Wuhan today.
The 2024 US Open finalist converted her seventh match point finally subduing a determined Hailey Baptiste in a “wild ride” that saw Pegula prevail 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6) in a punishing two-hour, 55-minute epic at the Wuhan Open.
The sixth-seeded Pegula served for the match at 5-2 and again at 5-4 only to see Baptiste dig in with defiance and fight off two match points in the eighth game and three more match points in the 10th game breaking back to level at 5-all.
Serving at 5-6, Pegula held at 15 to force the decisive tiebreaker.
Pegula was down 4-5 in the breaker, but came back. Baptiste saved another match point at 5-6 before Pegula finally sealed one of her toughest victories of the season.
Photo credit: Wuhan Open/CVG
“It’s been brutal,” Pegula said. “Match points, then she started playing well, I think I just got a little tentative. And that’s all it takes sometimes for someone to come back.
“I’m really proud of myself for how I held it together because I think I easily could have just collapsed. But I held tough, so yeah, that was a wild ride.”
The seventh-ranked Pegula will try to keep the ride going against Ekaterina Alexandrova next.
The ninth-seeded Alexandrova defeated American Ann Li 7-6(5), 6-2.
