Sabalenka, with help from Djokovic, and Swiatek reach Wuhan Open quarters

World number one Aryna Sabalenka raced into a fourth consecutive Wuhan Open quarter-final Thursday, after revealing she spent time on holiday last month practising with Novak Djokovic.

She was joined by Iga Swiatek, who reached her 25th WTA 1000 quarter-final with a hard-fought 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Belinda Bencic, and Coco Gauff, who ended the inspired run of Chinese wildcard Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-2.

Sabalenka, in contrast to her rusty start against Rebecca Sramkova the day before, came out firing from the get-go to blow away Russia's world number 20 Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2.

The Belarusian, whose unbeaten match run in Wuhan extended to 19-0 as she seeks a fourth straight title, took a month off after winning her fourth Grand Slam title at the US Open in early September.

She went on holiday to Greece, where she spent time hitting with former number one Djokovic, who is a resident there.

"We went for dinner. We practised a couple times," Sabalenka told reporters. "I hope I was a great hitting partner. So far, he's winning in Shanghai, so I guess I was."

Top seed Sabalenka did not face a break point and wrapped up the win in 75 minutes and will face former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the last eight.

Poland's Swiatek will face Italy's Jasmine Paolini for a place in the semi-finals.

Seventh seed Paolini survived a barrage of winners from Denmark's Clara Tauson, who took the opening set before retiring with a right thigh injury when trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-1.

"She was playing amazing tennis today and honestly, I was struggling a lot," said Paolini, who has now reached five WTA 1000 quarter-finals this season.

Jessica Pegula was made to battle through three sets for the second day running as she also reached the quarter-finals.

The American sixth seed spent almost three hours on court against Hailey Baptiste on Wednesday.

She needed more than two hours a day later to move past Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 and book a last-eight meeting with Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova.