Cibulkova surges into Wuhan quarters, aims 'to get the best ranking I can' for 2019

WUHAN, China - Dominika Cibulkova has knocked out her second consecutive seed at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open, dictating off the ground to defeat No.13 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-6(3) in one hour and 43 minutes and progress to her first quarterfinal since Wimbledon.

The result leaves No.16 seed Ashleigh Barty, last year's runner-up, as the only remaining seeded player in the top half of the draw. For Cibulkova, fresh off a second-round upset of World No.1 Simona Halep, it is a belated revenge for her only previous encounter with Kasatkina - a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 loss in the 2016 St. Petersburg quarterfinals, in just the Russian's ninth appearance in a WTA main draw.

Two-and-a-half years on, the Slovak once again came out firing first. Five forehand winners in the first two games alone were a statement of her aggressive intent, and garnered her an immediate break for 2-0. Over the course of the match, that wing would be the World No.31's most spectacular weapon, thrilling the crowd as she managed to combine force and subtlety on her inside-out angles and boldness and accuracy on her inside-in shots. Twenty-eight winners would result from it - compared to just two on Cibulkova's backhand side.

"I was really happy that today I could go on court and continue with the good tennis," said Cibulkova afterwards. "Even if I lose the ball, I would go for forehands and winners because that's the only chance I had to win. I had to go for my line, that was the strategy.

"Daria, she doesn't give you one ball for free so you really have to finish it. In the tiebreak, I just really went for it - my forehand was there and I felt I was controlling the ball for most of the match."

The 2016 runner-up would also prove sharper on the match's key points. Though both players maintained a respectable first serve percentage - 65% for Cibulkova, 73% for Kasatkina - neither would be able to dominate behind it. Sixteen of the 21 games featured at least one break point, including all but one in the second set, and there would be a conversion on 13 occasions. Kasatkina would be slightly more efficient in taking six of her 11 opportunities, but it was Cibulkova who edged ahead by simply coming back again and again to create more chances - and broke seven times from 19 chances.

Over the first set, momentum would shift in bunches of three games. Cibulkova's initial flurry of offence took her to 3-0 before Kasatkina, soaking up the pace and moving the ball around the court to extend the rallies, hauled level at 3-3.

But the 21-year-old could not find the accuracy to make a strategy of consistency work out. Fourteen unforced errors hindered her in the first set, a backhand finding the net to concede another break. Cibulkova promptly seized her moment with alacrity, burying a drive volley to take the set.

One of the former World No.5's strengths has always been her ability to rebound from scoreboard setbacks, and this proved to be the case throughout the second set. Kasatkina would finally unleash on her own forehand to break for 2-0, but Cibulkova responded with another forehand winner of her own to break back immediately. A fourth double fault for the 29-year-old put her down 1-3; she blitzed two forehands down the line en route to hauling back to 2-3.

As Cibulkova powered into a 4-3 lead, the frequency of both players' service holds dipped from occasional to never. Three times, the former WTA Finals champion would break Kasatkina; three times, she would cough up cheap errors to concede the lead, with the third finding Cibulkova spurning two match points at 6-5 as the Dubai and Indian Wells finalist refused to miss.

Kasatkina had saved four match points the previous day to squeak past 17-year-old qualifier Wang Xiyu 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(8), and there would be echoes of that great escape as she staved off the same number today - with another two passing by Cibulkova from a tiebreak lead of 6-1.

But the former Australian Open runner-up continued her big-stage resurgence in the second half of 2018, which has already seen her making the second week at both Wimbledon and the US Open, with - appropriately enough - yet another forehand winner on her fifth match point to set up an all-unseeded quarterfinal against Aryna Sabalenka.

For Cibulkova, her uptick in results is a belated payoff from her earlier hard work. "I felt I'm playing well since the beginning of the season, I just couldn't get my tennis on the court - and then when I did, I got injured," she said. "I felt like I was giving 100% to training and tennis the first half of the year, but I was not getting back what I was expecting.

"During the whole time, I felt like I am there, I just need to win a few matches and get on the right track - and it happened at Wimbledon, and then again at the US Open."

Now that the on-court results are coming at last for Cibulkova, she plans to make the most of her form in the closing months of the 2018 season. Her goal over the last few tournaments is "to get the best ranking I can" to set herself up for 2019 - and, in a larger sense, "to get what I didn't get in the first half of the season".