This time last week, only one top-five seed remained in the hunt in the Beijing quarterfinals.
The same is true this week in Wuhan, where World No. 5 Elina Svitolina is the highest-seeded player left in the field.
Unseeded Zheng Qinwen took advantage of the opportunity in Beijing, and Ann Li, Maria Sakkari, Sonay Kartal and Jelena Ostapenko will look to follow in her footsteps in the final WTA 1000 tournament of the season.
Here's everything you need to know about the quarterfinal matchups in Wuhan.
Ann Li vs. [7] Iga Swiatek
Li leads the head-to-head 1-0
Li is still riding high after upsetting World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the biggest win of her career. The 26-year-old American showed tremendous poise and resilience in that match, converting her 10th match point in an epic 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) win.
"I think on some of those match points I was about to lose my mind," she said after the match. "I was about to crash out."
Instead, she stayed within herself, trusted her shots and persevered. And despite all the whirlwind of emotions that accompanied that match, there was no post-Sabalenka hangover. Li took care of business again on Thursday, beating Janice Tjen in straight sets, and she's into her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal.
Swiatek, by contrast, is into her 32nd WTA 1000 quarterfinal, including seven this year. And every match from here on out carries significant weight. Not only is she playing for the Wuhan title, but she remains in contention for a WTA Finals berth. Swiatek has yet to drop a set through two matches, and she looked particularly strong on her return on Thursday, saving seven of eight break points against Ashlyn Krueger.
In their lone match on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, earlier this year in Madrid, Swiatek retired with a gastrointestinal illness while trailing 3-0 in the third set.
[16] Maja Chwalinska vs. Maria Sakkari
Head-to-head tied at 1-1
It's been a welcome return to Wuhan for Sakkari, who last played this tournament in 2018. She's had success here before, making the semifinals in 2017, and she has an opportunity to match that result on Friday. Sakkari had one of her wins of the season in the second round, a come-from-behind upset of Marta Kostyuk, sandwiched between two straight-set wins over Donna Vekic and 17-year-old wild card Mia Pohankova.
She'll play Chwalinska, who is having the best tournament of her career outside of her breakthrough run to the Roland Garros final. Chwalinska recovered from 6-1 down to beat Marie Bouzkova, then upset Iva Jovic 6-4, 6-1, the biggest win of her career by ranking. Chwalinska was far more consistent than the American in that match, hitting 16 fewer unforced errors.
Sakkari came from a set down to beat Chwalinska in their first career meeting, last year in Rome. Chwalinska flipped the script at Roland Garros this year, winning 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. That match is still fresh in Chwalinska's memory.
"It was an extremely hard match," she told reporters in Wuhan. "I remember that I was struggling physically. It was very hot, and Maria played amazing in the first set. I remember that. I didn't basically have any chance. So I'm expecting a very tough match again."
[5] Elina Svitolina vs. Sonay Kartal
Svitolina leads the head-to-head 2-0
Similar to Sakkari, this is Svitolina's first time in Wuhan in quite awhile. Prior to this week, she had last played this tournament in 2019, when she made the quarterfinals. She's back there again after a pair of wins over Liudmila Samsonova and Chinese wild card Guo Hanyu, the latter of whom had spent nearly six hours on court going into their match. Svitolina, who is inching her way towards a WTA Finals berth, wasn't at her best against Guo despite the 6-1, 6-4 scoreline. She made less than 50 percent of her first serves and made 32 unforced errors, though she did create 16 break points, converting seven of them.
Kartal, on the other hand, was locked in from start to finish in her third-round win over Jasmine Paolini, a clinical 6-2, 6-0 beating that took just 67 minutes. She had 14 winners to just eight unforced errors, and won the last 11 games. Playing just her third tournament following a sixth-month injury layoff, she's yet to drop a set in three matches, including another upset of ninth-seeded Belinda Bencic.
Svitolina and Kartal played at the very start of the year, in Auckland. It was a tight back-and-forth battle, with Svitolina narrowly winning 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5).
[11] Diana Shnaider vs. Jelena Ostapenko
First career meeting
Coming into this tournament, Shnaider didn't have the fondest memories of Wuhan. She had played here twice, and lost in the first round each time. And after arriving from Beijing after reaching the doubles semifinals, she didn't have the highest hopes that this would be the year she'd turn it around.
"When I came here, I was dead mentally, and definitely wasn't expecting to do great," she said.
To her surprise, she has been great -- nearly flawless, in fact. Shnaider has won all three of her matches this week in straight sets, the last of which was a 7-5, 6-3 upset of sixth-seeded Karolina Muchova.
She'll face Ostapenko, who has had a far more laborious path to the quarterfinals. She dropped just two games in her first-round win over Daria Kasatkina, but from there she was pushed to her limit by second-seeded Jessica Pegula. After dropping the first set 6-2, she saved three match point in the second-set tiebreak in a thrilling 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 win. She went the distance again on Thursday, beating Leylah Fernandez 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
Ostapenko is a former semifinalist in Wuhan, reaching the final four back in 2017.
