Halep, Venus into quarters; Kasatkina stuns Wozniacki

Del Potro dumps Ferrer; Cilic out

INDIAN WELLS, United States, March 14, (AFP): World No. 1 Simona Halep and Venus Williams punched their tickets to the Indian Wells quarter-finals, while Caroline Wozniacki suffered another exit at the hands of Russia’s rising star Daria Kasatkina.

Halep breezed through her fourth round match with a 7-5, 6-1 win over China’s Wang Qiang and eighth seed Venus Williams faced a stern test from Anastasija Sevastova but held on for a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory.

The 20-year-old Kasatkina, who has beaten all four reigning Grand Slam champions in the past year, continued her giant-killing form with a 6-4, 7-5 shock victory over world No. 2 Wozniacki.

Kasatkina recorded her second straight win over Wozniacki, having also beaten the Australian Open champ at the St Petersburg tournament last month.

“I’m playing my best matches against the best players,” she said. “But if you want to be on the top, you have to beat the top players. So quite a simple rule.”

Kasatkina improved to 11-6 on the