Halep knocks out erratic Sharapova

World number two Simona Halep beat Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-2 in the China Open third round on Wednesday for her first win over the Russian in eight attempts.

Halep, who lost to Sharapova in the first round of the U.S. Open, won five out of nine break points and took advantage of an errorprone display to hand the Russian her first straight-sets defeat of the season in one hour and 12 minutes.

Despite hitting more winners than her rival, Sharapova committed 39 unforced errors and struggled to contend with the second seed’s power and aggression in Beijing.

The Romanian goes through to the quarter-finals where she will take on either 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska or Daria Kasatkina, who face off later on Wednesday.

French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia took one step closer to qualifying for the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore with a 6-3 7-5 win over Australia’s Samantha Stosur in round two.

NITIN, BAVA MAKE QUARTER-FINALS

Talented youngster Nitin Kumar Sinha outsmarted Faisal Qamar while Bawa Haddin used his experience to tame bighitting Jayesh Pungliya to progress to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the Fenesta National Tennis Championship.

Nitin, who also represents Indian Air force, outplayed eighth seed and Indian Navy’s Faisal 6-3 6-2 while second seed Bava outclassed Pungliya 7-5 6-4 in the second round at the DLTA Complex. Faisal could not find a weapon to break Nitin’s all-round game as his over reliance on backhand slices was not enough to trouble the West Bengal boy.

The Under-17 World Cup starting on Friday should feature only players born this century, but officials are taking no chances after defending champions Nigeria were caught in a major age-cheating scandal.

All players at the competition, which has helped launch the careers of Neymar, Ronaldinho, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, will have their wrists scanned by MRI to check they weren’t born before January 1, 2000.

The measure was confirmed after Nigeria, who have won the tournament a record five times, bombed out of qualifying after they lost 26 squad members who were found to be over-age ahead of a key clash in August.

BEIJING: NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI:

RAMPANT

Age fraud is also rampant in other countries, according to football officials, prompting FIFA to bring Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment to the 17th edition of the tournament, which is taking part in six Indian cities.

MRI scans can determine whether a player is below 17 with 99 percent accuracy, experts say,