Andreeva and Noskova advance in Beijing with bigger goals in sight

No. 4 seed Mirra Andreeva and No. 5 seed Linda Noskova, both first-time Grand Slam champions this season, scored contrasting wins to advance to the third round of the China Open in Beijing on Friday.

Both players remain in a strong position to qualify for the season-ending WTA Finals in Charleston, with Andreeva currently third in the Race and Noskova sitting in eighth position. The pair also remain on course for a matchup in the quarterfinals this week.

Andreeva navigates anger to blank Yue in second and third sets

Andreeva was the first of the two to take the court Friday against local wild card Yue Yuan. The Chinese player, ranked No. 135 in the WTA PIF Rankings, started strongly to take the first set 6-3. But Andreeva rebounded by winning the next two sets to love to close out the 3-6, 6-0, 6-0 win in one hour, 52 minutes. The last two sets were her 12th and 13th 6-0 set wins in 2026 -- the most by any player on tour this year.

"It was frustrating," Andreeva said after her match about her slow start. "I was just not happy with the way things were going. I felt like there is a lot more stuff that I could do on the court that I was not able to do. I felt like in the first set she was the one playing more aggressive than me. I felt like she was the one maybe dominating a little bit more. That's why I struggled to be the one winning and leading in the score."

Andreeva added that she was able to channel her anger to turn her game around in the second and eventually the third set. "I guess just with that anger at myself, I'm happy that I was able to navigate that anger kind of into the game, into the match, not going down even more on myself," she said.

"I'm just happy I was able to turn things around. I felt like in the second set and the third set, my goal was to not let her be the one dominating, take advantage before her. I felt like I did that well. Happy that I was thinking about that in order to change things."

Andreeva improved to 9-0 in 2026 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz against opponents ranked outside the Top 100. It was also her 46th win of the season, tying her in third place with Aryna Sabalenka for most wins in 2026. Only Jessica Pegula (50) and Elena Rybakina (49) have scored more WTA-level main-draw wins in 2026.

Noskova avenges Bad Homburg loss to Ruse

Noskova, who reached the final here last year, followed on Centre Court, taking on Romania's Elena-Gabriela Ruse. The Romanian had won their only previous career meeting in Bad Homburg earlier this year, just prior to Noskova breaking through to win her first major at the All England Club.

Noskova started strongly to go up an early break and lead 3-0. Ruse, ranked 62nd in the world, fought back to put the set back on serve but needed a medical timeout to treat an injury. She was able to resume play, but Noskova proved too strong, winning eight of the last nine games to complete the 6-4, 6-1 win in one hour, 24 minutes.

The Czech improved to 18-3 against players ranked outside the Top 50 this season with Friday's win.

"Last year's experience was just amazing and so it's nice to come back to a place where I played great," Noskova told the media after her win. "I was excited for this tournament, Obviously, coming here from the Billie Jean King Cup is not easy, since it's a team competition to kind of reset your mind and get back into the singles or doubles. It's never easy, but I feel like today I managed to play well, so I'm happy."

Next round opponents for Andreeva and Noskova

Andreeva advances to play the winner of the match between No. 32 seed Clara Tauson and Polina Kudermetova, while Noskova will take on Swiss Viktorija Golubic for the first time on tour. Andreeva has a 4-0 record against Tauson and has won her only previous meeting against Kudermetova.