Simona Halep enters Shenzhen Open tennis quarter-finals

Simona Halep

Shenzhen (China), January 7 (IANS)

Top seed Simona Halep had an easy victory over Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia to reach the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Open here on Wednesday.

Vikhlyantseva, the 17-year-old wild card holder defeated Anna-lena Friedsam of Germany in the first round, but the gap between World No.584 and No.3 seemed still unbridgeable. Romanian Halep started strongly as she raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set and took the victory 6-2, 6-2 within 61 minutes, reports Xinhua.

"French Open!," the runner-up of last year's French Open answered after the match about her most desired title of 2015.

In other matches Wednesday, Russian Vera Zvonareva beat Turkey's Cagla Buyukakcay 6-3, 7-6 (5). Her opponent in the quarter-final will be eight seed Timea Bacsinszky from Switzerland who defeated Italian Karin Knapp 7-5, 6-2.

Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic came from behind to upset Slovakia's Anna Schmiedlova 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1. Tereza Smitkova beat Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in a all-Czech clash.

Top seed Peng Shuai/Xu Yifan was knocked out in the first round of women's doubles by their compatriots Liang Chen/Wang Yafan 6-3, 2-6, 12-14.