Halep, Kuznetsova crash out

No. 2-ranked Simona Halep lost her opening match at the Wuhan Open, dismantled by Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday.

Halep received a bye into the second round. She broke Kasatkina early but the Russian dominated thereafter.

It was Kasatkina's third win over a top-five player, after two wins over then-No. 1 Angelique Kerber this year.

"The game was much more difficult than the score is," Kasatkina said.

Halep had a chance this week to supplant Garbine Muguruza as No. 1 by reaching the final with other results going her way.

No. 4 Karolina Pliskova kept alive her shot at No. 1 by beating local favourite Shuai Zhang 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. To regain the No. 1 ranking, Pliskova must win the Wuhan title and hope Muguruza loses before the semifinals.

"I always want to play better than I did last year; I already won one round so hopefully I can win one more," Pliskova said.

Another Russian, two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, lost to Alize Cornet of France 6-3, 6-3.

Three other seeds advanced: No. 7 and 2016 finalist Dominika Cibulkova, No. 8 Jelena Ostapenko, and No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska.

Ostapenko came back to beat Barbora Strycova 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Radwanska saw off Julia Goerges of Germany 7-5, 7-5.

Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, Caroline Garcia of France, Wang Qiang of China, and Varvara Lepchenko of the US were also winners on Tuesday.

On Monday, Johanna Konta crashed out, joining an exodus of top seeds including US Open finalists Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys after a shock-prone beginning to the Chinese tournament.

Konta failed to get on the scoreboard against Australia's Ashleigh Barty in the first set but appeared to be staging a comeback when she led 3-1 in the third.

The 26-year-old Brit, who went out in the first round at Flushing Meadows, served for the match but eventually succumbed 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 to Barty, ranked 37 in the world.

Konta was also joined by reigning-champion Petra Kvitova in an unexpected early exit, with the Czech number 11 seed losing to China's Shuai Peng 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 after a thrilling three-and-a-half-hour, three-set epic.

Source: Khaleej Times