Jelena Ostapenko produced one of the escapes of the Wuhan Open, saving three match points in a second-set tiebreak before overturning No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 in the second round of the Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open.
Key takeaways
- Ostapenko defeated Pegula in two hours and 23 minutes after trailing by a set and facing elimination in the tiebreak.
- The Latvian saved the third match point with the only drop shot she attempted during the match.
- It was her third Top 10 victory of 2026 and the 28th of her career.
- Ostapenko will play Leylah Fernandez or qualifier Shi Han for a place in the quarterfinals.
- The win marked the seventh WTA main-draw match in which Ostapenko has recovered from match point down.
From arm pain to a Wuhan comeback
Pegula controlled the opening set 6-2 as Ostapenko struggled to sustain exchanges. The Latvian won only two points in rallies lasting more than four shots during the set and committed 11 unforced errors.
The American maintained her grip early in the second, breaking for 3-2. At that stage Ostapenko took a medical timeout and returned with heavy strapping on her right arm. She later said the pain had been severe before medication allowed her to keep competing.
“I had a lot of pain in my arm, then I took a painkiller and then I was fighting for every single point,” Ostapenko said in her on-court interview.
Her level rose steadily, but Pegula’s consistency still carried her to three match points in the tiebreak. The first disappeared when Pegula missed a routine volley with open court available. Ostapenko then struck a service winner to erase the second before changing the pattern completely on the third.
After trading heavy groundstrokes and failing to find a way through Pegula’s defence, Ostapenko feathered a drop shot that curved beyond the American’s reach. It was her first and only drop shot of the contest, and it sent the set to the Latvian.
Asked afterwards what prompted such an unexpected choice, Ostapenko said instinct had taken over.
“Honestly I don’t even want to think what I was thinking, because I think I was not thinking anything,” she said. “I was just in the moment. I think I play the best when I go by my instincts, with my feelings. You don’t really have to think what you are doing. Just be in the moment and play tennis.”
Power returns as Ostapenko moves through the draw
With the momentum reversed, Ostapenko surged through the deciding set behind her attacking return game. She finished with 45 winners, including 10 aces, while recording 37 unforced errors and 11 double faults.
There was one final wobble when she did not convert a 30-0 advantage while serving for the match. But she immediately broke Pegula in the following game, striking two clean return winners to close out the upset.
Her improvement was not limited to first-strike tennis. After winning just two extended points in the opener, Ostapenko claimed 23 rallies of more than four shots across the final two sets, including five rallies that lasted beyond nine shots.
The result gave Ostapenko her first victory over a Top 5 opponent since she beat Aryna Sabalenka in the Stuttgart final last year. It was also her third win in seven meetings with Pegula, following victories in Québec City in 2015 and Beijing. Pegula had won their most dramatic previous encounter in Doha in 2023, saving two match points in a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory.
Ostapenko, the 2017 Roland Garros champion, said her current form has followed a difficult North American hard-court stretch in which she went 0-3.
“The US swing was pretty bad for me,” she said. “After that, I feel like I was practising well at home. I feel I’m in the right zone now and I feel like I’m making the right decisions. Sometimes when I have to go for the shots, I go for it. Sometimes, even when I play very aggressive, I was trying to keep the ball in play and wait for the good ball to attack. I feel like I was doing this really good today, and yesterday, and also in Beijing.”
In the Wuhan draw, Ostapenko now awaits either Fernandez or Shi. A win in that next round would put her into her third WTA 1000 quarterfinal of the season.
