Top seed Simona Halep, No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit and No. 3 seed Emma Raducanu all won in straight sets on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Transylvania Open at Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Playing in her homeland of Romania, Halep defeated Russia’s Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-2 after overcoming a back injury to win 26 of her 32 first-service points (81.3 percent). Halep will face countrywoman Jaqueline Cristian in the next round.
Estonia’s Kontaveit knocked out Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium 6-3, 6-4. And Great Britain’s Raducanu, forging her first successful run in a tournament since winning the U.S. Open, earned a whopping 35 of 40 first-service points (87.5 percent) to beat Romanian Ana Bogdan 6-3, 6-4.
Ukrainian sixth seed Marta Kostyuk also won her second-round match, a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Mona Barthel, and Rebecca Peterson of Sweden eliminated Romania’s Irina Bara 6-0, 6-3.
Courmayeur Ladies Open
In an all-Italian matchup in the northwestern corner of the country, No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini outdueled Lucrezia Stefanini 6-4, 7-5 in the second round at Courmayeur, Italy.
Paolini saved 9 of 12 break points and converted 5 of 6 opportunities to break Stefanini’s serve, making all the difference in the match.
China’s Xinyu Wang upset countrywoman Shuai Zhang, the eighth seed, 7-6 (5), 6-4. Wang trailed 5-3 in the first-set tiebreak before winning four straight points to earn the set. Each player finished the match with seven aces.
American ninth seed Ann Li dropped the first set but rebounded to defeat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in a nearly two-hour affair, and Donna Vekic of Croatia beat China’s Saisai Zheng 6-3, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
