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Suarez Navarro dealt Tour Finals setback by Shvedova

Carla Suarez Navarro's bid for a place in the WTA Tour Finals suffered a blow as she was knocked out of the China Open in the first round.

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Carla Suarez Navarro's bid for a place in the WTA Tour Finals suffered a blow as she was knocked out of the China Open in the first round by Yaroslava Shvedova on Sunday.

Suarez Navarro sits eighth in the Road to Singapore standings but going into the tournament led Madison Keys by just a point in the race for the top eight.

And her hopes were done no favours by an emphatic 6-1 6-3 defeat to Shvedova, while eighth seed Keys survived a blip to beat wildcard Duan Ying-Ying in three sets 6-0 4-6 6-1.

Johanna Konta - also firmly in the hunt for a spot in the season-ending showpiece - trounced Anastasija Sevastova 6-1 6-1.

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Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska was another comfortable winner - hammering Wang Qiang 6-2 6-2, while Caroline Wozniacki was a 6-1 2-6 6-4 victor over Coco Vandeweghe as the Dane's resurgence continues.

SUAREZ NAVARRO PAYS PRICE FOR SUB-PAR SHOWING

Suarez Navarro has enjoyed a fine 2016, at one point rising to a career-high ranking of six, but the seventh seed was well off the boil in Beijing as Shvedova eased through.

The Spaniard won just 42 per cent of her first serve points and was broken five times as the Kazakh - ranked 33 places below her at 41 - triumphed in one hour and 12 minutes to dent her prospects of playing in Singapore.

RADWANSKA BOUNCES BACK IN ROUT

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Had Radwanska won the Wuhan Open last week, she would already have booked her place at the Tour Finals.

The Pole lost in Wuhan in the quarter-finals to Svetlana Kuznetsova after seeing match points go begging, but responded superbly by routing Wang.

On the fight for spots in Singapore, Radwanska said afterwards: "Everybody can do a lot of points here. It's a little bit more pressure, but I think every year it's kind of similar situation for everyone, especially a lot of girls this year is really close and the rankings are very tight."

JUST A BLIP FOR MADISON AS KEYS COMES THROUGH

Keys looked in dominant form as she dished out a bagel in the first set against Duan, only to then allow the Chinese back in the contest in the second.

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The American dropped serve at 4-5 in the second but she recovered her composure in a decider in which she broke Duan three times and dropped just two points on serve.

MEANWHILE...

Zhang Shuai gave the home fans something to cheer with an easy 6-1 6-2 win over former US Open champion Samantha Stosur and qualifier Alison Riske stunned 15th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (7-4) 6-1

Elsewhere in the draw there were wins for Roberta Vinci, Timea Babos, Kristina Mladenovic, Misaki Doi and Wang Yafan.

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