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By Spencer Musick
BEIJING, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The sixth day of action at the China Open on Thursday saw several major upsets on the WTA side of things.
The biggest shocker of the day saw No.1 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany stunned by 16th seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in their third-round meeting.
It is the second time the Ukrainian has bested a No.1 player during this season.
Svitolina dominated the first set with strong defense against Kerber's serves and aggressive play at the baseline, taking it with relative ease in 44 minutes.
Kerber fought back in the second set, leveling at five games all, but in the end was unable to keep pace with her opponent.
Kerber said that she is not feeling in her best form, and missed several chances during the match.
"I had my chances, for sure, but I didn't take it. I make a lot of easy mistakes. I was not playing my best, for sure. Physically I was not 100% so I was not able to play my best," she said.
Svitolina said she is pleased with her overall performance, and most of all happy that she was able to close out the match in two sets.
"Yeah, I'm really, really happy that I won today. Really happy that I finish with two sets because last time playing in Montreal, I was really close."
The Ukrainian goes on to meet Australian Daria Gavrilova in the quarterfinals.
Another upset, and one that delighted the home crowd at the Diamond Court, saw world No.36 and China's top-ranked player Zhang Shuai advance to the quarterfinals with a convincing 6-0, 6-3 victory over fourth seed Simona Halep.
The victory marked Zhang becoming the first Chinese woman to reach the last eight at the China Open since Li Na pulled it off in 2013.
"It's very big win today. After the Australia Open, this is second time we meet this year. I'm feeling I play much better than the Australia Open because I have more confidence. Especially we are in the China Open, my favorite tournament, so I'm really happy," said Zhang.
Zhang broke three times to win the first set 6-0 with only 18 minutes. Halep from Romania stormed to a 3-1 lead in the second set, but the host player fought back to win five games in a row to seal the victory.
Polish third-seed Agnieszka Radwanska was one big name who managed to advance. She moved into the quarterfinals with a straight-set 6-3, 6-1 win over former world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
Radwanska, who was down 0-2 going into the third game of the opening set, said that in hindsight she wanted to avoid getting off to a rough start.
"Yes, I think (if it had gone to) 3-love, for sure it's a slow and bad start. For sure, that was one of the most important games in that set. Well, I think it's much easier to play when it's just 1-2," she said.
Also advancing on the WTA side was Britain's Johanna Konta, who took out Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (2).
On the ATP side, much action was suspended due to rain on the outside courts.
Second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain moved into the quarterfinals with a nail biter of a 6-1, 7-6 (6) win over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
Nadal broke Mannarino twice to open up the match, and pulled ahead to 3-0 before the Frenchman was able to reply to make it 1-3.
Nadal took the first set with ease in 29 minutes, winning 75 percent of his points on the first serve.
The second set was a different story entirely, with Nadal making 17 of his total of 21 unforced errors in the one hour 51 minutes marathon that was touch and go for the Spaniard throughout.
As the second set wore on, Nadal became visibly tired and Mannarino was able to level it at 6-all and send the match to a tiebreaker, which itself went all the way to 6-all before Nadal managed to squeak out a win.
Also advancing was Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated sixth-seed Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-7 (3), 7-6 (0), 6-4. Enditem
