Halep and Garcia among seeds to fall in Wuhan
World number one Simona Halep and defending champion Caroline Garcia suffered second-round defeats while Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova also made early exits at the Wuhan Open on Wednesday (AES
Halep received treatment on her back and left thigh before succumbing 6-0 7-5 to Dominika Cibulkova in the top seed's first match since losing to Kaia Kanepi in the opening round of the US Open.
Garcia will not be repeating her success of last year in China after Katerina Siniakova consigned the fourth seed to a 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) defeat, the qualifier saving a match point in the second set before going on to pull off a shock.
Svitolina, the sixth seed, went down 6-4 2-6 6-1 to Aryna Sabalenka, while Pliskova and Kiki Bertens were knocked out after winning the Tokyo Open and Korea Open respectively last weekend.
Madison Keys retired from her match against Angelique Kerber at 6-0 4-1 down due to a knee injury on a day which saw Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza reach round three.
