IT was another big day of interesting clashes and hard fought battles with Day 3 of the Shenzhen International once again living up to the hype. Some of the usuals moved through to the next stage with Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka making light work of her opponent while the clash between the two Americans provided plenty of intensity. Five Chinese competitors took the court in the third day of the tournament, with two reigning supreme alongside players from five other nations.

Sabalenka put on a show against Russian, Margarita Gasparyan with the second seed displaying her class, not even allowing one game to fall the way of Gasparyan in the second set and winning in a convincing 3-6 0-6 battle. A mammoth two-and-a-half hour match delayed proceedings as American duo, Shelby Rogers and Nicole Gibbs, went head to head. The duo was well matched with Rogers ultimately coming out on top, convincing in the first and third sets as the worthy winner, 6-3 5-7 6-4. Though Gibbs put up a tough challenge, it was her third match in as many days so was likely feeling the pressure against the likes of Rogers who took the court for the first time in the tournament.

Fourth seed, Wang Qiang all but ran over her Tunisian opponent in Ons Jabeur, 6-0 6-3, joined in the fourth day by Chinese teammate Peng Shuai who bumped Lin Zhu out in three sets, dropping the second set before regaining control for an altogether dominant win, 6-2 3-6 6-3. Meanwhile, fellow Chinese competitors, Wang Xinyu and Zheng Saisai both went down in their respective matches, both taking their competitor to three sets but unable to beat the likes of sixth and seventh seeded players, Garbine Muguruza and Elena Rybakina.

In other matches, Kristyna Pliskova took Irina-Camelia Begu down in straight sets, 6-3 6-3, while Aliaksandra Sasnovich continues to the next round alongside fellow Belarusian Sabalenka, downing Anna-Lena Friedsam in similar form to Pliskova, 6-2 6-3.