115-115: Hanyu Guo edges Katie Volynets 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 in Wuhan

115-115. After 33 games in Wuhan, Katie Volynets and Hanyu Guo had won exactly the same number of points. The scoreboard still had to split them: 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 to Guo, settled by the only tiebreak of the match. One game — 16-17 — was the entire margin.

The opener belonged to Guo's aggression: four breaks of serve in a 6-4 set, with Volynets saving just four of the eight break points she faced. Volynets hit back in the second, 6-4, a set without a single double fault from either player, in which Guo saved three of five break points and still got broken twice, Volynets converting two of her five chances. The decider became a serving exhibition from Volynets — 32 service points won to Guo's 22, 12 of 15 break points rescued — and it still slipped away, tiebreak to Guo.

Guo won this match with the return. She collected 65 receiving points to Volynets' 53 and converted eight break points — the same number as Volynets, though from 24 chances to her rival's 16. Volynets built everything on her first serve: 50 first-serve points to 31, and 73% of first serves in play against Guo's 60%. That is the paradox of the match: every classic serving number belongs to the loser.

Volynets saved 16 break points to Guo's eight and put 93 first serves in play to 62. None of it decided anything. Guo finished with three double faults and one tiebreak won — that was enough to turn 115 equal points into a 17-16 games win and a place in the last 16.