Venus Williams of the United States returns a shot to Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in their women's singles third round match during the WTA Wuhan Open 2016 tennis tournament in Wuhan city, Hubei province, Sept 28, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Kuznetsova is now ranked 10th and has a good chance to reach the WTA Finals Singapore as she just knocked out seventh ranked Williams and eighth ranked Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain was eliminated by Britain's Johanna Konta 7-5, 7-6(6) in the third round.

"I've been struggling with my ranking. I was 20, 25 for the past years. 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."

After the early exit, Williams will next move to Beijing for next week's China Open.

"I think she (Kuznetsova) just played well. Not every day is your day. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year and play amazing tennis," said the sixth-seeded Williams.

"It just definitely wasn't the best day on the court for me. Like I said, she played really well. Total credit to her. I'm just going to go to Beijing and try to play well there."