World No.3 Petra Kvitova overcame Caroline Garcia to power through to the semi-finals of the WTA Wuhan Open on Thursday, while Canadian sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard also made it into the last four.
Garcia had previously performed heroics at the inaugural tournament, beating Venus Williams and world No.6 Agnieszka Radwanska to make the quarter-finals, but the Wimbledon champion proved to be too much for the 20-year-old to claim victory 6-3 6-4.
Garcia took only one game in the opening five, before Kvitova, the third seed in Wuhan, went on to win the set.
The pair matched each other early on in the second set before Kvitova broke serve in the seventh game and closed in on victory.
The Czech will now play either German seventh seed Angelique Kerber or Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in Friday's semi-final.
Garcia, who is ranked 49th, has won one WTA title in her career, at Bogota in April.
It was also heartbreak for Alize Cornet, who went out 6-3 7-5 after putting up late resistance against sixth seed Bouchard.
Cornet has been in a terrific form in China, having reached the final of the WTA Guangzhou Open last Saturday.
She also became the first woman since Justine Henin in 2007 to gain three victories over world number one Serena Williams in a season when the top seed in Wuhan retired from their second round match with a viral illness.
Her other victories over the American power-hitter came at Wimbledon in June and in Dubai in February.
Bouchard will go on to play the winner of the other quarter-final in Wuhan, which will see Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky face off with world No.7 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
The Wuhan Open in the central province of Hubei features the world's top 20 women players and reaches its climax on Saturday.
Share
