China's No. 1 tennis player Wang Qiang crashed out of the WTA Wuhan Open Wednesday, slumping to a 6-2, 6-1 third-round loss against Alison Riske of the U.S.

Having become the first Chinese player to make the semifinals of the Wuhan Open last year, Wang made the perfect start against Riske, breaking the American's serve to love in the very first game.

Alas for the many Chinese fans on Center Court, that was as good as it got for the Tianjin-born star, who failed to break Riske's serve again on her way to a disappointing straight-sets defeat.

"I think at every point I wanted to smash my racquet," said a dejected Wang afterward. "Riske's style of play doesn't really suit me. It seems like my style suits her. I don't think my return made her very uncomfortable, but her return made me really uncomfortable."

Riske's reward for beating Wang is a quarterfinal tie against No. 3 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who defeated Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2. 

World no. 1 Ashleigh Barty had an easier time in her meeting with Sofia Kenin of the United States, firing off seven aces - five in the first set - in a 6-3, 7-5 victory.

Although it was not as touch and went as her fight against Caroline Garcia yesterday, Barty was shaky out of the gate on her forehand, suffering four straight errors. But she managed to warm up and slice her way to a quick half-hour victory in the first set.

The second was more of a see-saw, with the two players trading breaks at the outset and then holding to 3-4 for Kenin, who then broke Barty to go one up. Barty responded by breaking her opponent twice more, including saving a set point, to round out the straight-set win.

Barty now faces a quarterfinal tie against Petra Martic, after the Croatian did short work of Veronika Kudermetova, defeating the Russian 6-3, 6-1 in under one hour.

No. 3 Elina Svitolina logged a clinical win over Russian qualifier Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4, 6-2.

Two-time Wuhan Open champion Petra Kvitova defeated Sloane Stephens for the first time in their three meetings, notching a place in the quarterfinals in the process.

Czech Republic's No.5 seed, who has won the Wuhan title in 2014 and 2016, serves up six aces on her way to a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 10 seed Sloane Stephens of the U.S.

Kvitova's quarterfinal opponent will be Ukraine's Dayana Yastremka, who upset No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the evening session on center court.

No. 4 seed Simona Halep of Romania retired 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).

(With input from Xinhua)