TENNIS NEWS - World No 1 Ash Barty fended off a late comeback attempt by American Sofia Kenin to reach the Wuhan Open quarterfinals on Wednesday, while second seed Karolina Pliskova was knocked out in straight sets by Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska.
After cruising through the first set without any trouble, Barty fought back from a break down in the next, saving two set points to overcome Kenin 6-3 7-5 for her third win over the 20-year-old Guangzhou champion in four meetings this season.
Next up for the Australian top seed will be Croatia's Petra Martic who defeated qualifier Veronika Kudermetova 6-3 6-1.
World No 2 Pliskova's hopes of dethroning Barty as world No 1 by the end of the week ended with a 6-1 6-4 defeat by Yastremska.
The unseeded 19-year-old did not drop serve and smashed 26 winners past her Czech opponent for the first top 10 victory of her career.
