Halep, Svitolina win in rainy Cincy, Anderson ousted
Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina advanced eficiently after a day of rain interruptions, both seeds reaching the quarter-inals of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters in straight sets.
Top seed Halep came from a break down in each set to overhaul Australian 16th seed Ashleigh Barty 7-5, 6-4.
Ukrainian Svitolina, seeded fifth, beat 16-year-old American prodigy Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 6-4.
Men were also working to conclude third-round matches, with Belgian 11th seed David Goffin upsetting Wimbledon finalist and sixth seed Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-4.
Anderson exited with just nine aces, dropping his serve three times.
Halep set up a quarter-final clash with Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko with her second win in six days over Barty. She beat the Australian in the semifinals in Montreal an her way to the title there.
“It was a tricky match, she was a tough opponent,” Halep said.
DEL POTRO THROUGH
Novak Djokovic’s third-round struggle with defending champion Grigor Dimitrov was halted by rain, forcing the pair to come back on Friday at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.
Earlier, Juan Martin del Potro managed to complete a weatherdelayed second-round 6-2, 6-3 win over South Korean Chung Hyeon to set up a meeting with Australian Nick Kyrgios for a place in the quarter-finals -- a match originally set for Thursday night but now on tap for Friday. Two men’s quarterfinalists were decided as Milos Raonic defeated Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 -- avenging a loss to his young Canadian compatriot in Madrid three months ago.
Pablo Carreno Busta also advanced, beating Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-2.
STEPHENS EXITS
In women’s third-round action, reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens was eliminated while Madison Keys, runner-up at Flushing Meadows last year, moved on.
Belgian Elise Mertens scored the second top five win of her career, beating Stephens 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 while Keys rallied to defeat fourth-seeded Wimbledon champion angelique ker ber 2-6,7-6(7/3),6-4.
Keys fired 55 winners with 44 unforced errors against the German, who is playing her first hard court tournamentin the build up to the us open.
P et rakv it ova, who toppled serena Williams in the second round, reached the last eight with a 6-4, 6-2 win over France’s Kristina Mladenovic.