Second seed Aryna Sabalenka recovered from a set down to beat No. 35 Yulia Putintseva 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 to maintain her unbeaten record at the Wuhan Open and rise to the top of the WTA rankings.

The Belarusian’s victory on Thursday allowed her to retake the top spot in the rankings from Iga Swiatek, who is missing the women’s Asian tournament for personal reasons and fatigue.

Sabalenka, the US Open champion, is 14-0 in Wuhan, having won the title in her first appearance in 2018 and defending her crown in 2019 before the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions took a five-year break from the calendar.

The three-time major winner started slowly but really got going in the second set and carried that momentum through to the decider to secure a place in the quarterfinals against Magdalena Frech, who beat Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 6-2 .

Sabalenka finished the game with 44 winners and 33 unforced errors, while Putintseva scored 13 winners and 14 unforced errors.

Coco Gauff reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over 17th-ranked Marta Kostyuk.

It was fourth-seeded Gauff’s eighth consecutive win after the American won the China Open last week to move back into the top five of the rankings.

Gauff fired two aces and broke the Ukrainian’s serve five times, losing serve once, as she won a one-sided match and extended her lead in her head-to-head series to 3-1.

Next up for Gauff is 45th-seeded Magda Linette, who continued her impressive form this week by beating eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3.

“She is a tough opponent,” Gauff said of Linette. “We haven’t played since (the 2021 US Open). I really don’t know what to expect. But just watching her play, she played some great games here in Wuhan.”

“I expect it to be a tough game. She’s not an easy opponent to play.”

Gauff will be the only American left in the draw after third-seeded Jessica Pegula and Tour rookie Hailey Baptiste lost.

Pegula, the US Open finalist, had a tough afternoon against China’s 51st-ranked Wang

Wang had won their only previous second-round meeting at Wimbledon in three sets and got off to a fast start on Thursday, beating Pegula twice in the opening set.

After her first win over a top 10 player in the preliminary round, Baptiste was defeated by Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-1, 6-1.

Paris Olympics gold medalist Zheng Qinwen beat Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 and sixth seed Jasmine Paolini defeated Erika Andreeva 6-3, 6-2.