WUHAN, China, Sept. 25 -- The round of 16 at the 2019 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open proved to be a topsy-turvy affair, with top seed Ashleigh Barty and No. 3 seed Elina Svitolina easing into the quarterfinals, while second seed Karolina Pliskova and local hero Wang Qiang were both knocked out by lower-ranked opponents here on Wednesday.

Action on center court started with No. 4 seed Simona Halep of Romania retiring with a back injury while down 4-5 in her match against Kazakh wildcard Elena Rybakina.

Rybakina bounced back from being two breaks down at 2-4 with a three-game run, keeping pace well with Halep's groundstrokes and getting a break of her own to serve for the set before her opponent called a medical time out.

The Kazakh set up a quarterfinal match against defending champion and 9th seed Arnya Sabalenka, who survived a thriller of a second set tiebreak where she brought it to match point three times before sealing the deal against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, 6-1, 7-6 (9).

The breadstick first set made the match look like it was going to be another by-the-book Sabalenka takedown delivered from the baseline. The Belarussian broke her opponent twice and never faced break point herself to log 81 percent shooting on service.

Sabalenka then broke Bertens' service twice in the second to storm to a 5-1 lead, only to be broken when serving for the match at 5-3, as her opponent began to turn up the heat on return, taking things all the way to a tiebreak that was anyone's to lose.

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