Garbine Muguruza advances as other leading seeds bow out at Wuhan Open
ByPA Sport
Updated 26/09/2017 at 15:55 GMT
The leading seeds continued to fall at the Wuhan Open but world number one Garbine Muguruza bucked the trend.
Garbiñe Muguruza
Image credit: Eurosport
Playing in her second tournament since ascending to the top of the rankings, the Spaniard defeated Lesia Tsurenko 6-4 6-4 to reach the third round.
Second seed Simona Halep became the biggest casualty so far, the Romanian holding serve just once in a heavy 6-2 6-1 defeat by Russia's Daria Kasatkina.
Two more top-10 seeds fell, with Caroline Wozniacki and Svetlana Kuznetsova joining Halep, Johanna Konta and Madison Keys in making early exits.
Wozniacki was beaten 7-5 6-3 by Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari while Kuznetsova's prospects of qualifying for the WTA Finals took a hit with a 6-3 6-3 loss to Alize Cornet.
With the Russian's defeat, Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina and Venus Williams are all assured of their places in Singapore next month, joining Muguruza.
Kuznetsova qualified at the very last moment 12 months ago by virtue of winning the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and she may have to do the same again.
With the top eight to qualify and three weeks of the season left, Kuznetsova is currently more than 800 points behind Konta in the final spot.
Pliskova celebrated her qualification with a hard-fought 6-4 3-6 6-4 victory over Zhang Shuai while there were also wins for Jelena Ostapenko, Dominika Cibulkova and Agnieszka Radwanska.
Pliskova's twin sister Kristyna is the top seed at the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan and she made a winning start with a 7-6 (7/3) 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 victory over Hsieh Su-wei.
There were much easier wins for second seed Timea Babos - 6-1 6-1 over Johanna Larsson - and third seed Tatjana Maria, who defeated Vitalia Diatchenko 6-3 6-1.
On a good day for the seeds, Aleksandra Krunic and Nao Hibino also won.
Results from the Wuhan Open Women's Singles Round 2 matches on Tuesday
1-Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-4 6-4
Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) beat Peng Shuai (China) 4-6 6-3 6-4
Maria Sakkari (Greece) beat 4-Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) 7-5 6-3
Magda Linette (Poland) beat Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-1 6-2
16-Elena Vesnina (Russia) beat Elise Mertens (Belgium) 6-2 6-4
8-Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) beat Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic) 2-6 7-5 6-3
Daria Kasatkina (Russia) beat 2-Simona Halep (Romania) 6-2 6-1
7-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) beat Jil Teichmann (Switzerland) 6-2 6-2
Varvara Lepchenko (U.S.) beat Kiki Bertens (Netherlands) 6-4 6-4
Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) beat Lauren Davis (U.S.) 6-2 6-4
3-Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) beat Zhang Shuai (China) 6-4 3-6 6-4
Wang Qiang (China) beat Sorana Cirstea (Romania) 6-3 6-3
Alize Cornet (France) beat 6-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 6-3 6-3
Caroline Garcia (France) beat Christina McHale (U.S.) 6-1 6-1
9-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat Julia Goerges (Germany) 7-5 7-5
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