World No. 31 Daria Kasatkina tallied a huge upset at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open as she ousted world No. 2 and second seed Simona Halep, 6-2, 6-1, in the second round of the tournament. The win was Kasatkina’s third over a top-five player after she defeated former world No. 1, Angelique Kerber, twice earlier this year. In her first match since losing in the first round of the US Open, Halep was sluggish against Kasatkina. Halep broke Kasatkina early in the first set, but the latter exerted her might as she dominated the Romanian, who failed to hold serve even once.
After the match, Halep said she’s still trying to regain his rhythm after not playing for almost a month. In the quarterfinals, Kasatkina will next face Ekaterina Makarova, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Lauren Davis.
Meanwhile, third seed Karolina Pliskova defeated Zhang Shuai in three sets to reach the third round of the event for the fourth straight year. Pliskova, who briefly occupied the world No. 1 spot earlier this year, remained unbeaten against Shuai in five matches. Zhang, for her part, saw the end of her six-match winning streak that carried her to a second career WTA singles title at the Guangzhou Open last week. The win pits Pliskova against another Chinese player, Wang Qiang, who defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania, 6-3, 6-3.
Ostapenko defeated Barbora Strycova
Seventh seed Dominika Cibulkova and eighth seed Jelena Ostapenko also reached the next round after contrasting wins over their respective opponents. Ostapekto defeated Barbora Strycova in three sets while Cibulkova cruised past Swiss wildcard Jil Teichmann with a straight-set win. In other matches, Alizé Cornet ousted sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-3, 6-3; Caroline Garcia defeated Christina McHale, 6-1, 6-1 while Varvara Lepchenko beat Kiki Bertens in straight sets.
Jeremy Chardy prevailed in Shenzhen
Jeremy Chardy eliminated Alessandro Giannessi, 7-6 (6), 6-4, in one hour and 53 minutes to reach the third round of Shenzhen Open. Chardy will go for his third ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season against the winner between Donald Young and 17-year-old Nicola Kuhn. In other matches, Steve Darcis ousted hometown hope Ze Zhang in two sets while Dudi Sela sent qualifier Matthew Ebden packing with a two-set win,
In Chengdu, China, sixth seed Kyle Edmund defeated Bernard Tomic, 6-4, 6-2, in 62 minutes to reach the second round of the Chengdu Open.
With the win, Edmund will next challenge American Jared Donaldson. Meanwhile, Dusan Lajovic of Serbia arranged a second-round clash with second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas after eliminating qualifier Adrian Menendez-Maceiras in straight sets. Other winners were Yen-Hsun Lu, Andrey Rublev, Denis Istomin and Karen Khachanov.
