Zheng Jie defeated American No. 15 seed Madison Keys to win her first championship Beat a top-20 player since undergoing elbow surgery in July.
Sabelenka has won seven of eight meetings with Olympic champion Zheng.
Third seed Elena Rybakina defeated Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 6-3 6-4 to reach the last 16.
Kazakh Rybakina will face Australian qualifier Talia Gibson, who defeated 18th seed Eva Jovic 6-2 6-2 to knock out another seeded player.
Gibson, who reached the quarterfinals of Indian Wells, defeated former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka in the second round in Miami.
Fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula, who lost to Sabalenka as runner-up last year, defeated Canadian Leila Fernandez 6-2 6-2 in just one hour and six minutes.
Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, the 2018 Miami runner-up, fought back to beat seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini 5-7 6-2 7-5.
Ostapenko will next face American world No. 45 Hailey Baptiste, who beat Ukrainian ninth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3 7-5.
