Unseeded American McCartney Kessler reached the Ningbo Open quarterfinals Thursday with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory over eighth-seeded Russian Liudmila Samsonova in Ningbo, China.

Kessler raced to a 5-1 lead in the opening set before dropping five straight games. She pulled it together during the tiebreaker and finished off Samsonova in an hour and 42 minutes. She will face No. 4 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia in the final eight.

It was the only upset of the day at the WTA 500 event. No. 2 Jasmine Paolini of Italy defeated Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 6-2, 7-5. No. 3 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan outlasted Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3. Alexandrova was a 6-3, 6-3 winner against China's Yue Yuan.

Japan Open

No. 4 Leylah Fernandez of Canada was the only seeded player to surv

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