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Top-ranked Angelique Kerber was upset by No. 14 seed Petra Kvitova in a grueling three-set match in the third round of the Wuhan Open in China on Wednesday. Playing in her first tournament since taking over the No. 1 ranking from Serena Williams, Kerber survived a three-setter in her opening match, but the German was unable hold off Kvitova, who moved onto the quarterfinals with a 6-7 (10), 7-5 6-4 victory in a match that lasted three hours and 20 minutes.
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"It's always tough to play against Petra," said Kerber. "I think we both played on a really high level over three hours."
"At the end I think there's no loser. I did everything today. I was fighting until the end."
No. 6 seed Venus Williams was also upset, falling 6-2, 6-2 to No. 9 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. However, fellow American and No. 8 seed Madison Keys outlasted Russian qualifier Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska avenged a loss to Caroline Wozniacki at the Pan Pacific Open last week with a 6-4, 6-2 victory Wednesday. Also moving on was fourth-seeded Simona Halep of Germany, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, and No. 11 seed Johanna Konta of England, who upset Spain's No. 7 seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 7-6 (6).
Kvitova will face Konta in the quarterfinals, with Halep playing Keys and Kuznetsova taking on Radwanska. Kuznetsova acknowledged the defending champion Williams seemed off her typical game Wednesday.
"It was a good match. I don't think Venus played her best game. But I've been confident and I've been playing well," Kuznetsova said. "I didn't use couple of my chances in the second set. But, yeah, I still could finish it 6-2.
"I felt like Venus started to play better in the end and it was really important for me to keep the momentum."
The other two quarterfinal spots will be determined Thursday in matches between Barbora Strycova and Jelena Jankovic and Karolina Pliskova facing Dominika Cibulkova.
