Three top-five seeds, Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced to the women's singles quarterfinals at the Ningbo Open in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, after defeating their opponents on Thursday.

Fourth-seeded Alexandrova beat home wildcard Yuan Yue 6-3, 6-3 in their third meeting. Yuan knocked out Alexandrova in the first round at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The 30-year-old Russian broke the opponent in her first service game and capitalized on nearly every key play to take the first set quickly.

Yuan scored a break first in the second set which she began with a 2-0 advantage, but it was soon wiped and trailed 5-3 after eight games. Though she saved three match points in the ninth, she couldn't stop Alexandrova from clinching victory. The Russian will face American McCartney Kessler in last eight.

No. 3 seed Rybakina defeated Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in three sets 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3. The world No. 9 had the chance to end the competition in the second set, but she missed two match points and then conceded the tiebreak for the match to enter a decider.

Rybakina bounced back in the third set, starting with a 3-2 advantage and then continued to play better and better before sealing the deal 6-4. She will play Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic next.

Italian No. 2 seed Jasmine Paolini knocked out Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 6-2, 7-5 in round of 16. She led 4-1 in the first set. Though the opponent slowed her down a bit by taking the sixth game, Paolini clinched the following two games to claim the set.

Kudermetova caused more trouble for Paolini in the second set, but Paolini stayed in control of the contest during most time before sealing her spot in the last eight where she will face Swiss sixth seed Belinda Bencic.