Second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka rallied from a set down to beat No. 35 Yulia Putintseva 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 to maintain her unbeaten record at the Wuhan Open and move to the top of the WTA rankings to rise.

Thursday’s victory for the Belarusian allowed her to regain top spot in the rankings from Iga Swiatek, who is absent from the Asian women’s swing due to personal reasons and fatigue.

Sabalenka, the US Open champion, is 14-0 in Wuhan after winning the title in her first appearance in 2018 and defending her crown in 2019 before the tournament took a five-year break from the calendar due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The three-time major winner started slowly but came alive during the second set and carried that momentum through the decider to clinch a quarter-final spot against Magdalena Frech, who beat Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 6-2.

Sabalenka finished with 44 winners to 33 unforced errors, while Putintseva remained on 13 winners and 14 unforced errors.

Coco Gauff advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat of 17th seed Marta Kostyuk.

It was Gauff’s eighth consecutive win at fourth after the American won the China Open last week, moving her back into the top five of the rankings.

Gauff fired two aces and broke the Ukrainian’s serve five times, dropping serve once, as she won a one-sided match and extended her lead in their head-to-head series to 3-1.

Next up for Gauff is No. 45 Magda Linette, who continued her impressive form this week by beating eighth seed Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3.

“She’s a tough opponent,” Gauff said of Linette. “We haven’t played since the 2021 US Open. I really don’t know what to expect. But just from watching her play, she’s playing a tremendous number of matches here in Wuhan.

“I expect it to be a difficult match. She is not an easy opponent to play against.”

Gauff will be the only American left in the draw after losing third-place Jessica Pegula and tour rookie Hailey Baptiste.

US Open finalist Pegula had a tough afternoon against 51st-ranked Wang

Having won their only previous meeting in three sets in the second round at Wimbledon, Wang got off to a fast start on Thursday by breaking Pegula twice in the opening set.

After her first win over a top 10 player in the previous round, Baptiste was defeated by Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-1, 6-1.

Paris Olympics gold medalist Zheng Qinwen defeated Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 6-3, 6-0, and sixth-ranked Jasmine Paolini defeated Erika Andreeva 6-3, 6-2.