Australian Ash Barty continues strong

Australian Ashleigh Barty continued her strong form at the Wuhan Open, beating her second consecutive top-20 player with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 win over ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round on Wednesday.

In hot and humid conditions, Barty broke Radwanska's service six times to advance to the quarterfinals and the winner of a later match between third-seeded Karolina Pliskova and China's Wang Qiang.

The 21-year-old Barty, who beat fifth-seeded Johanna Konta in the second round, had the first service break of the match to lead 2-1 in the opening set, but Radwanska leveled three games later and broke Barty's service again in the 10th game to clinch the opener.

The Australian broke Radwanska's serve in the deciding set to take a 4-2 lead. She set up game point in the eighth game with a backhand drop shot after a 20-shot rally to lead 5-3, then held serve in the 10th game to advance on her fourth match point.

"I didn't do much wrong in that first set, but came up short, so credit to her," Barty said. "But I played pretty well over the last two sets."

Barty, who played more aggressively than Radwanska, had 40 winners compared with the Polish player's 12.

It's been a tough tournament for seeded and featured players.

On Tuesday, second-seeded Simona Halep and No. 4-seeded Caroline Wozniacki lost their second-round matches. Former No. 1 Angelique Kerber, US Open champion Sloane Stephens - beaten by Wang - and runner-up Madison Keys lost in the first round.

Later Wednesday, Wimbledon champion and No. 1- ranked Garbine Muguruza was scheduled to play Magda Linette of Poland.

Source: Khaleej Times