Jaqueline Cristian Advances in Wuhan Tournament with Strong Comeback Victory

WUHAN, China — Jaqueline Cristian, a 27-year-old Romanian tennis player, defeated American McCartney Kessler, 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, 6-3, on Tuesday in the first round of the Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000 tournament with a total prize pool of $3,654,963.

The match lasted two hours and 33 minutes. Kessler, who is 26 and ranked 33rd in the WTA, started strong, taking a 3-0 lead in the first set. However, Cristian fought back, winning five games in a row. Despite having two set points at 6-5, Cristian lost the set in a tiebreak as Kessler edged out 8-6.

Cristian bounced back in the second set, dominating and winning the set 6-0. In the final set, she broke Kessler’s serve at 3-3 and maintained control to close out the match on Kessler’s serve.

This was not the first meeting between the players; Cristian previously defeated Kessler 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in the first round of qualifying for the Madrid Open last year.

For her victory in Wuhan, Cristian earned $23,450 and 65 WTA points. She is set to face Kazakhstan’s Elena Rîbakina, the eighth seed, in the next round. Rîbakina, 26 and ranked 9th in the WTA, has a 2-1 advantage in their head-to-head matches.

In their past encounters, Rîbakina won 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 16 in Bucharest in 2019 and defeated Cristian in August this year, 6-0, 7-6 (7-5).