In Beijing Garbine Muguruza opened up the chances of three other players to take over her number one position in the world.
The Spaniard exited in the first round against Barbora Strycova 1-6 0-2 retired.
Karolina Pliskova (4) lost her chance when Sorana Cirstea delivered a big straight sets upset in the third round.
Elina Svitolina (3) made it to the quarter finals and fought for over three hours with Caroline Garcia (unseeded, but unlikely to be that way in tournaments for much longer). The French woman appeared destined for defeat a number of times but climbed out of holes with a fierce determination, not unlike that displayed in her Wuhan final triumph last week.
Garcia won 6-7 (5) 7-5 7-6 (6) and Svitolina remains waiting for another chance to take the top mantle in WTA rankings.
Simona Halep (2), though, who has wasted several opportunities to grab the top spot in the past, only needs to win one more match and she will overtake Muguruza to achieve her goal. It will be difficult, since her semi final opponent is Jelena Ostapenko (8), the Latvian yet to drop a set this tournament.
However, Halep, apart from donating a set to Alison Riske in her opening match, has been ruthless ever since, and is hot favourite to win both her semi final and the final, and take the lead in both the WTA World Rankings and the 2017 WTA Points Race.
Winning the final, should Halep reach it, won’t be a walk in the park. It will be either Petra Kvitova (12) or Caroline Garcia who she will need to overcome and neither of those players will fold easily.
Petra is showing some of her Wimbledon winning form, dispatching Wozniacki for the loss of just five games, and then her Fed Cup team mate Barbora Strycova in another strong straight sets victory in the quarter final.
The men are also entertaining the Beijing crowds - the semi finals have been determined -
Rafa Nadal (1) v Grigor Dimitrov (3)
Nick Kyrgios (8) v Alexander Zverev (2)
Nadal was down a set and taken to a second set tie break in his opener against Lucas Pouille, but has been comfortable since. Dimitrov will provide something harder.
The other semi is one between two of the young guns - Zverev already a top five player and Kyrgios set for the top ten if he can avoid his nagging injuries.
In Tokyo, another ATP 500 event is down to the final four:
Marin Cilic (1) v Adrian Mannarino
David Goffin (4) v Diego Schwartzman (8)
No luck for Milos Raonic who retired injured in the second round. Also out in the second round was US Open finalist Kevin Anderson (5).
We had already lost in the opening round Dominic Thiem (2), Sam Querrey (6) and Albert Ramos-Vinolas (7).
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