Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic celebrates during the women's singles third round match between Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Sloane Stephens of the United States at the 2019 WTA Wuhan Open tennis tournament in Wuhan of central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)
By sportswriters Spencer Musick and Michael Butterworth
WUHAN, China, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- The round of 16 at the 2019 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open proved to be a topsy-turvy affair, with top seed Ashleigh Barty and No. 3 seed Elina Svitolina easing into the quarterfinals, while second seed Karolina Pliskova and local hero Wang Qiang were both knocked out by lower-ranked opponents here on Wednesday.
Action on center court started with No. 4 seed Simona Halep of Romania retiring with a back injury while down 4-5 in her match against Kazakh wildcard Elena Rybakina.
Rybakina bounced back from being two breaks down at 2-4 with a three-game run, keeping pace well with Halep's groundstrokes and getting a break of her own to serve for the set before her opponent called a medical time out.
The Kazakh set up a quarterfinal match against defending champion and 9th seed Arnya Sabalenka, who survived a thriller of a second set tiebreak where she brought it to match point three times before sealing the deal against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, 6-1, 7-6 (9).
The breadstick first set made the match look like it was going to be another by-the-book Sabalenka takedown delivered from the baseline. The Belarussian broke her opponent twice and never faced break point herself to log 81 percent shooting on service.
Sabalenka then broke Bertens' service twice in the second to storm to a 5-1 lead, only to be broken when serving for the match at 5-3, as her opponent began to turn up the heat on return, taking things all the way to a tiebreak that was anyone's to lose.
Sabalenka suffered a critical double fault when serving for the match at 8-7, and laughed off the error. But perhaps that positivity was just the trick she needed; her forehands down the line that had been missing earlier in the set finally began to work their magic in the nick of time for her to seal a hard-fought victory.
"It's funny, isn't it? Sometimes you just need to smile and relax your body. I couldn't get angry [at] myself," Sabalenka said of her double-fault after the match.
World no. 1 Ashleigh Barty had an easier time in her meeting with Sofia Kenin of the United States, firing off seven aces - five in the first set - in a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Although it was not as touch and go as her fight against Caroline Garcia yesterday, Barty was shaky out of the gate on her forehand, suffering four straight errors. But she managed to warm up and slice her way to a quick half-hour victory in the first set.
The second was more of a see-saw, with the two players trading breaks at the outset and then holding to 3-4 for Kenin, who then broke Barty to go one up. Barty responded by breaking her opponent twice more, including saving a set point, to round out the straight-set win.
Barty now faces a quarterfinal tie against Petra Martic, after the Croatian made short work of Veronika Kudermetova, defeating the Russian 6-3, 6-1 in under one hour.
Next up on center court, No. 3 Elina Svitolina logged a clinical win over Russian qualifier Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4, 6-2.
Kuznetsova, who held serve at 2-1 despite facing three break points, fired off more winners than her opponent and lobbed solid groundstrokes from both sides throughout during the first set, but Svitolina was able to take her two breaks down by cracking her second services off consistent forehand shooting from the baseline.
The second set was much rougher for the Russian, who was broken three times on the way to an exactly 20-minute rout.
Svitolina faces Alison Riske in the quarterfinals, after the American eased past home favorite Wang Qiang 6-2, 6-1.
Having reached the semifinals of last year's Wuhan Open, Wang made the best possible start against Riske, breaking the American's serve to love in the very first game.
However, to the disappointment of the many Chinese fans in attendance, that was as good as it got for the Tianjin-born star, who couldn't live with Riske's powerful returns and slumped to a straight-set defeat.
There was an upset in the evening session on center court, as No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic was defeated 6-1, 6-4 by Ukraine's Dayana Yastremka.
An out-of-sorts Pliskova failed to break Yastremka's serve at any point throughout the match, and the Ukrainian served up six aces on her way to a straight sets win.
Yastremka's quarterfinal opponent will be fifth seed Petra Kvitova, with the Czech serving up six aces on her way to a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 10 seed Sloane Stephens of the U.S..
