The quarter-finals were determined at the WTA 250 Guangzhou Open in China over Wednesday and Thursday, and the No 2 seed, Ann Li, safely made it there with a comfortable 7-5 6-2 win over Camila Osorio from Colombia on Thursday.
The American was the last seed standing, in fact, and she will meet Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto for a spot in the semi-finals on Friday.
Cocciaretto needed all her determination to get past former champion and home favourite, wild-card Wang Xiyu, who dispatched Britain’s Fran Jones, the 7th seed, in straight sets in the 1st-round, the Italian winning through on Thursday, 6-3 2-6 6-3, after a 2 hour 10 minute scrap.
Improving to 3-1 overall against Wang Xiyu, Cocciaretto advanced to her 3rd tour-level quarter-final of 2025.
Qualifier Lulu Sun of New Zealand dropped just 4 games against another Chinese wild-card, Wang Yafan, to make it into to her first tour-level quarter-final since reaching the Monterrey final in August 2024.
Sun needed just 60 minutes to dispatch the Chinese, 6-3 6-1, and set up a Last 8 meeting with Caty McNally, after the American found her way past Australia’s Ajla Tomjlanovic, 6-4 4-6 6-3, in 2 hours and 42 minutes.
Qualifier Claire Liu reached her 1st tour-level quarter-final in 2 years in Guangzhou with a straight sets win against Anna Bondar
WTAtennis.com
Another American, qualifier Claire Liu, reached her first tour-level quarter-final in 2 years with a 6-3 6-4 win over Russia’s Anna Bondar, exactly 24 months since making the Last 8 in Seoul 2023.
Liu will face Germany’s Ella Seidel, who powered her way past Yulia Putintseva, upsetting the No 6 seed and 2018 runner-up from Kazakhstan, 6-3 6-2, in just 64 minutes.
It is Seidel’s 3rd tour-level quarter-final of 2025, and levels her head-to-head with the Russian-born Kazakh at one win apiece.
Katie Volynets, yet another American qualifier, defeated French lucky loser Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah, 6-3 6-3, to make her 2nd tour-level Last 8 appearance this season, where she will meet Chinese wild-card, Zhang Shuai, the 2013 and 2017 Guangzhou Open champion, who returned to the quarters for a 5th time with a 3-6 6-3 6-2 come-back win over Veronika Erjavec from Slovenia.
Zhang has advanced to her first tour-level quarter-final in 13 months, her last appearance coming in Beijing in 2024.
