The 2016 WTA Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open defending champion Venus Williams of the United States hasreached the end of the road for her title defense following a 6-2, 6-2 defeat against the current world No. 10 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia on Wednesday at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center in Hubei, China.

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According to Xinhua, five breaks during the course of the match helped the 31-year-old Kuznetsova stroll to her fifth victory in nine meetings over the current world No. 7 American tennis star. The win also put the two-time Grand Slam winner to a quarterfinal showdown against the winner between Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska.

"It was a good match. I don't think Venus played her best game," said Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 US Open and the 2009 French Open. "But I've been confident and I've been playing well." 

The 36-year-old Williams will next move to Beijing for the upcoming China Open that will run from October 1 to Oct. 9 following her early departure from the Wuhan Open.

The Russian tennis ace has now a good chance to reach the WTA Finals in Singapore after beating Williams and Spanish Carla Suarez Navarro, who ranks eighth in the latest world rankings, was ousted by Johanna Konta of the Great Britain with a hard-fought 7-5, 7-6(6) win in the third round of the tennis competition.

"I've been struggling with my ranking. I was 20, 25 for the past years," Kuznetsova said. "This year it went up quite good for me. Now the possibility to be in Singapore definitely makes me feel better, gives me more motivation as well." 

Meanwhile, former Roland Garros runner-up Simona Halep of Romania also passes through the third round after easily outclassing Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinal round of the tournament. Halep, who presently ranks No. 5 in the world, will be playing world No. 9 Madison Keys of the United States on Thursday, according to Yahoo.

Tagswuhan open, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, Simona Halep, wta, Wuhan Open 2016 Quarterfinal Round