Quebec’s Leylah Fernandez was unable to maintain the pace that allowed her to snatch the first set against China’s Zheng Qinwen on Thursday, losing 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 in the round of 16 of the Wuhan Open tennis tournament.

Facing the local favourite, ranked seventh in the WTA rankings, the Laval player lost her second service game in the second set and was never able to make up the deficit. She resisted two set points with the balls in hand before giving in in the third.

After two hours and one minute of effort to complete the first two sets, Fernandez (28th ) faded in the third. She won only nine of the 35 points, suffering three breaks in 29 minutes.

Fernandez placed 66% of her first serves in play, 11% more than her opponent. Zheng was more incisive on serve, however, winning 68% of the rallies she started, compared to 53% for Fernandez.

Zheng, gold medalist at the Paris Olympics, will face Italian Jasmine Paolini (6th ) in the quarter-finals of this WTA 1000 tournament.

Sabalenka will take Swiatek’s place
Elsewhere, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2nd ) came from behind to beat Ukrainian Yulia Putintseva (35th ) 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 to keep her clean record in Wuhan and regain first place in the WTA rankings.

Thursday’s victory will see Sabalenka move ahead of Poland’s Iga Swiatek, who has decided not to participate in the WTA Asian Tour for personal reasons.

Sabalenka, the recent US Open champion, is 14-0 in Wuhan after winning the title in 2018 and 2019. The tournament was not played the next four seasons due to the COVID -19 pandemic .

The three-time major champion started the match slowly but found her rhythm in the second set. She hit 44 winners to Putintseva’s 13.

Sabalenka will play against the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (12th ) or the Polish Magdalena Frech (27th ) .

American Coco Gauff (4th ) also reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk (17th ) . It was an eighth straight victory for Gauff, who won the China Open last week.

Gauff now faces Poland’s Magda Linette (45th ) , who continued her impressive run this week by beating Russia’s Daria Kasatkina (11th ) 6-2, 6-3.

“She’s a tough opponent,” Gauff said of Linette. “We haven’t played each other since [the 2021 U.S. Open]. I really don’t know what to expect. But just watching her, she’s played some great matches here in Wuhan.”

Gauff is the only American still in the running as Jessica Pegula (3rd ) and Hailey Baptiste (102nd ) lost.

Pegula, a finalist at the US Open, was eliminated by China’s Wang Xinyu (51st ) 6-3, 7-5. Baptiste was defeated 6-1, 6-1 by Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova (33rd ) .