Sabalenka Extends Winning Streak, Osaka to Play Gauff at China Open

 Tennis - China Open - China National Tennis Center, Beijing, China - September 30, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates winning her round of 32 match against Ashlyn Krueger of the US. (Reuters)
Tennis - China Open - China National Tennis Center, Beijing, China - September 30, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates winning her round of 32 match against Ashlyn Krueger of the US. (Reuters)
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Sabalenka Extends Winning Streak, Osaka to Play Gauff at China Open

 Tennis - China Open - China National Tennis Center, Beijing, China - September 30, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates winning her round of 32 match against Ashlyn Krueger of the US. (Reuters)
Tennis - China Open - China National Tennis Center, Beijing, China - September 30, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates winning her round of 32 match against Ashlyn Krueger of the US. (Reuters)

Aryna Sabalenka's dominant hard-court season showed no signs of slowing down as she cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ashlyn Krueger at the China Open on Monday for her 14th consecutive victory.

The three-time Grand Slam winner started her streak with a title at Cincinnati in August and continued with a run to the championship at the US Open earlier this month. She also won the Australian Open earlier in the year.

The second-ranked Sabalenka converted five of her seven breakpoint opportunities in a lopsided contest against Krueger and will next face Madison Keys, hoping to equal her career-best 15 consecutive victories set in 2020-21.

Keys had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Beatrice Haddad Maia of Brazil. Haddad Maia won the Korea Open last week but struggled to combat the baseline power of Keys.

Former No. 1 Naomi Osaka continued her positive start with new coach Patrick Mouratoglou with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Katie Volynets, advancing to a round of 16 match against sixth-ranked Coco Gauff.

It will be the first meeting between the two Grand Slam champions in more than two years, with the head-to-head series tied at 2-2.

“It’s going to be a really cool test for me,” Osaka said. “She’s played really well this year. I’m excited to play the match, and I know people are excited to watch the match.”

Osaka, who returned from maternity leave at the start of this season and is No. 73 in the current rankings, fired five aces and produced three service breaks.

The four-time major winner joined Mouratoglou shortly before the China Open after splitting with Wim Fisette. Her run here so far is the first time since May that Osaka has had three consecutive wins.

Also, No. 14-ranked Anna Kalinskaya was leading 3-6, 6-3, 3-1 when Peyton Sterns retired from their match. She will next play Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine.

Karolina Muchova beat Jaqueline Cristian 6-1, 6-3 and will play the winner of the match between Cristina Bucsa and 24th-seeded Elise Mertens in the fourth round.

In the men's draw, Andrey Rublev beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 7-5 in a match that was carried over from Sunday because of a rain delay.

No. 6-ranked Rublev had six aces and 21 winners to extend his career record against Davidovich Fokina to 5-0.

The fifth-seeded Russian will play local favorite No. 96-ranked Bu Yunchaokete in the quarterfinals.



Forest Wins at Wolves and Closes Gap on Premier League Leader Liverpool

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025  Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein
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Forest Wins at Wolves and Closes Gap on Premier League Leader Liverpool

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025  Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein

Nottingham Forest beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 away from home and moved within six points of Premier League leader Liverpool on Monday.
First-half goals from Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood and an injury-time third from Taiwo Awoniyi sent Forest to a sixth straight league win, The Associated Press reported. Nuno Espírito Santo’s men are tied on points with Arsenal, which is above them on goal difference.
The game took place on the 50th anniversary of Brian Clough’s appointment at the City Ground and the old maestro would have been thrilled to see his team get off to the perfect start with a goal after six minutes.
Former Wolves midfielder Gibbs-White combined on the counterattack with Anthony Elanga before stroking the ball into the bottom corner from 14 meters.
Both sides looked to play football and Wolves came into the game. However, Norwegian striker Jørgen Strand Larsen rued missing a couple of clear chances and he was punished two minutes before halftime when Wood doubled the visitor’s lead.
The big New Zealander put away Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cut back to grab his 12th goal of the season and his eighth in 13 league appearances against Wolves.
Forest dominated the second half and Wood's late replacement Awoniyi made it 3-0 in stoppage time.
The result set up a mouth-watering fixture between first and third next week, when Forest hosts Liverpool on Jan. 14.
It also brought Forest's European dreams a tiny bit closer. Wood said the squad's focus was keeping up the rich form that would make that happen for the first time since the 1990s.
“It is about consistency and doing what we have been doing extremely well already this season," Wood said. "We’re not giving up halfway through the season, we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing in the first 19 matches.
The defeat was the first for recently appointed Wolves coach Vitor Pereira and left it fourth from bottom.
It was “one of those games where you feel like the result could’ve been the other way,” Wolves defender Matt Doherty said. “Teams are ruthless. You can’t make mistakes and we made a couple of them and we got punished.”