Wang on brink of biggest win as rain stops play

Chinese number one Wang Qiang was on the brink of the biggest win of her season yesterday when rain abruptly stopped her quarter final against world number five Elina Svitolina. The 26-year-old was serving for the match at 15-30, 5-2 in the second set -- after cruising to a 6-2 victory in the first set -- when the heavens opened. Play was later suspended until today, giving the sixth seed an agonising overnight wait to close out the win. Svitolina would be Wang’s highest-ranked top ten scalp this year. The current world number 24 grabbed headlines at the French Open with her straight-sets demolition of Venus Williams, offering a hint of what was to come.

She later overcame Karolina Pliskova in both Beijing and Wuhan, but none of the victories was against such a high ranked opponent as Svitolina. She also beat Caroline Wozniacki in 2013 aged just 21 when the Dane was ranked number 10. Wang had seemed in complete control during the match, with the under pressure Svitolina committing a string of unforced errors, before the top seeded Ukrainian was saved by the weather. The eventual winner will play former world number one Garbine Muguruza, who fought off a late comeback by Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum to win 6-2, 7-5.

Muguruza, the 2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon champion, is keen to finish what has been by her standards a disappointing season on a high. She has slumped to a world ranking of 13, while her best Grand Slam performance was a semi final at Roland Garros. The Spaniard was relieved to keep the hard-fought match to just two sets ahead of her today semi. “It was very competitive,” the 25-year-old. Kumkhum broke her as she served for the match, levelling the scores at 5-5, before Muguruza finally overcame her opponent, who is ranked 105.