WUHAN, China (AP) No. 2-ranked Simona Halep lost her opening match at the Wuhan Open, dismantled by Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday.
Halep received a bye into the second round. She broke Kasatkina early but the Russian dominated thereafter.
It was Kasatkina's third win over a top-five player, after two wins over then-No. 1 Angelique Kerber this year.
''The game was much more difficult than the score is,'' Kasatkina said.
Halep had a chance this week to supplant Garbine Muguruza as No. 1 by reaching the final with other results going her way.
No. 4 Karolina Pliskova kept alive her shot at No. 1 by beating local Shuai Zhang 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. To regain the No. 1 ranking, Pliskova must win the Wuhan title and hope Muguruza loses before the semifinals. Muguruza was in action late.
''I always want to play better than I did last year; I already won one round so hopefully I can win one more,'' Pliskova said.
Another Russian, two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, lost to Alize Cornet of France 6-3, 6-3.
Three other seeds advanced: No. 7 and 2016 finalist Dominika Cibulkova, No. 8 Jelena Ostapenko, and No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska.
Ostapenko came back to beat Barbora Strycova 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Radwanska saw off Julia Goerges of Germany 7-5, 7-5.
Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, Caroline Garcia of France, Wang Qiang of China, and Varvara Lepchenko of the U.S. were also winners on Tuesday.
