Top seed Simona Halep and defending champ Caroline Garcia dumped out
World No 1 Simona Halep and defending champion Caroline Garcia both crashed out of the Wuhan Open on Tuesday.
Top seed Halep was handed an emphatic 6-0, 7-5 defeat by former Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova.
Dominika @Cibulkova defeats World No.1 Halep 6-0, 7-5!
Advances to @WuhanOpenTennis third round! pic.twitter.com/H7RMJZq1u1
— WTA (@WTA) September 25, 2018
Cibilkova will take on Daria Kasatkina next after the 13th seeded Russian beat Xiy Wang from China 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (10-8).
Fourth seed Garcia, who surged up the world rankings last year on the back of her success in Wuhan and the China Open, was sent packing by Katerina Siniakova.
The Czech qualifier won 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) in a match that lasted just over three hours.
What a finish!@K_Siniakova gets it done in three sets against Garcia @wuhanopentennis, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4)!#WuhanOpen pic.twitter.com/wYDCQrNd44
— WTA (@WTA) September 25, 2018
And life doesn’t get easier for Siniakova as she will take on two-time Grand Slam winner Garbine Muguruza in the third round after the Spaniard beat Viktorija Golubic 6-0, 6-1 earlier in the day.
Eighth seed Karolina Pliskova also tasted defeat with Qiang Wang, who won the Guangzhou Open last week, claiming her scalp with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
#SAPStatOfTheDay: Wang Qiang claims a career-best win to continue her brilliant form in Asia! @SAPSports pic.twitter.com/8ek7jr2IM4
— WTA (@WTA) September 25, 2018
Wang faces Daria Gavrilova for a place in the quarter-final after the Australian beat Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
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