Elina Svitolina pleased with her 3rd round victory over No. 1 Angelique Kerber

No. 1 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany was stunned by 16th seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the third round of the China Open here on Thursday.

It is the second time the Ukrainian has bested a No. 1 player during this season.

Svitolina dominated the first set with strong defense against Kerber's serves and aggressive play at the baseline, taking it with relative ease in 44 minutes.

Kerber said that she was not feeling in her best form, and missed several chances during the match.

"I had my chances, for sure, but I didn't take it. I make a lot of easy mistakes. I was not playing my best, for sure. Physically I was not 100% because I feel a little bit my leg, so I was not able to play my best," she said.

Kerber fought back in the second set, leveling at 5 games all, but in the end was unable to keep pace with her opponent.

Kerber said that in an "up and down" match, Svitolina did a good job on return.

"She was moving good. She brings a lot of balls back. I think that was the key, yeah, why she beat me at the end."

The Ukrainian saved 82 percent of break points in the match, and won 33/43 points on the first serve.

Svitolina said she was pleased with her overall performance, and most of all happy that she was able to close out the match in two sets.

"Yeah, I'm really, really happy that I won today. Really happy that I finish with two sets because last time playing in Montreal, I was really close."

Svitolina added that she did not let Kerber's returns go to her head, and said this was a key point in her approach to battling her.

"Main thing was just mentally to be focused. Even if you play good point against her, she can play some amazing shots back.... This is really important when you play against her because sometimes she gets some balls which is, like, unbelievable, playing amazing shots from down the line," she said.

Svitolina goes on to meet Australian Daria Gavrilova in the quarter-finals. Endit