Halep on Chinese roll, is Oz Open top seed
SHENZHEN: World No 1 Simona Halep assured herself of top billing for the Australian Open after powering past local hope Duan Yingying and into the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Open in China on Wednesday. Halep hit 21 winners and won five out of eight break points to prevail 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and secure her No 1 ranking going into next week and top seeding for Melbourne ahead of Caroline Wozniacki and Garbine Muguruza.
RAONIC CRASHES OUT
BRISBANE: Australian third seed Nick Kyrgios overcame a leg injury to reach the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday as fourth seed Milos Raonic was bundled out by wildcard Alex De Minaur.
Kyrgios came back from losing the first set to fellow Australian Matthew Ebden to win 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, finishing the match with his leg heavily strapped.
In the late match on Pat Rafter Arena, 18-year-old De Minaur had the biggest win of his career when he stunned former champion Raonic 6-4, 6-4.
WOZNIACKI ADVANCES
AUCKLAND: Caroline Wozniacki continued to build on her WTA Finals victory late last year with another impressive performance on her way to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Croatia’s Petra Martic to reach the quarter-finals of the Auckland Classic on Wednesday.
“I’m trying to stay aggressive,” Wozniacki said in a court-side interview. “I still made some unforced errors. It’s taking a few matches to play like 100 per cent but I still felt I played pretty well today.”
VERDASCO ELIMINATED
DOHA: Only two seeds remain at the Qatar Open after two more were beaten in the tournament’s early matches on Wednesday, leaving six of the event’s eight highest-ranked players out.
Spain’s Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez were the latest high-profile victims to join the growing list of seeds to fall early in Doha. Russia’s Andrey Rublev, 20, beat veteran seventh seed Verdasco 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Rublev, the world number 39, broke Verdasco in the ninth game of the final set and needed one just match point to secure victory.
Earlier, wildcard world number 138 Mirza Basic shocked eighth seed Lopez with a straight sets victory 6-4, 7-6 (7/2). Lopez is ranked 102 places higher than the Bosnian in the world standings.
KERBER SEALS WIN
PERTH: A buoyant Angelique Kerber beat a battling Eugenie Bouchard to lead Germany to a 3-0 win over Canada at the mixedteams Hopman Cup on Wednesday. Former world No 1 Kerber notched her second straight-sets wins in Perth to start the new year, while Bouchard —once ranked fifth but now 83rd -— was testy after yet another comprehensive defeat.