Bianca Andreescu from Canada and China’s Yue Yuan powered into the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Wuhan Open on Thursday without even stepping onto the court.
Their progression was made possible when the top-seeded Italian duo, Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani, withdrew ahead of their scheduled match, handing Andreescu and Yuan a walkover triumph.
In singles action, Paolini later advanced to the quarterfinals after her rival, Clara Tauson from Denmark, retired while the score was 3-6, 6-1, 3-1 in favor of Paolini.
Next up for Andreescu and Yuan is a showdown against the No. 8 seeds, Anna Danilina from Kazakhstan and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic.
In the meantime, Leylah Fernandez hailing from Laval, Quebec, and her partner Erin Routliffe from New Zealand were knocked out in the round of 16. They lost to Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic and Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia, with scores of 4-6, 6-4, 10-4.
Routliffe, who resides in Montreal, frequently teams up with fellow Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski from Ottawa, with whom she claimed the U.S. Open women’s doubles title last month.
