Ashleigh Barty has recovered from a second-set hiccup to move into the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open.

The Australian looked to be cruising towards a win, up a set and a break before Sofia Kenin found her range and served for the second set in China.

But the American crumbled just as a decider looked likely, giving away two set points and ultimately the match to the world No.1, 6-3 7-5.

It was far from Barty’s smoothest tennis, the Queenslander logging 29 unforced errors against her 25 winners but she did enough to move into the last eight and keep a grip on the top ranking.

The 15th seed had beaten Barty in their previous encounter in Toronto last month and had also been riding a seven-match winning streak after lifting her third career trophy last week in Guangzhou.

Barty finished strongly however, rattling through 15 of the last 17 points and sealing victory with her seventh ace of the day.

She’ll play the winner of the match between Petra Martic or qualifier Veronika Kudermetova as she seeks to go deep into the tournament and hold onto the No.1 ranking from Karolina Pliskova.

The draw has opened up on Barty’s side as well with Wimbledon champion Simon Halep, the fourth seed, retiring during the first set of her third round match against Elena Rybakina.

Other early winner on Wednesday included defending champion Arnya Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina.