Jucătoarea Simona Halep, locul 3 WTA, s-a calificat, duminică, în sferturile de finală ale turneului Australian Open, primul Grand Slam al anului, după ce a trecut, cu 6-4, 6-2, de belgianca Yanina Wickmaier, locul 80 WTA.

    Simona Halep lifted her level against one of her toughest match-ups, beating Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

   Wickmayer had won the pair's only three previous meetings, and handily in straight sets, no less, and things looked like they would get tricky again this time as the Belgian cut an early 4-1 deficit to 4-3, pushing Halep to the limits in the first set with her big serve and even bigger groundstrokes.

But the No.3-seeded Halep ended tucking away that first set a few games later and starting rolling in the second set, eventually finishing the match off after an hour and 19 minutes, 6-4, 6-2.

Halep's numbers on the match were very clean - 23 winners to 13 unforced errors, a +10 differential. Those 23 winners in 79 minutes work out to roughly one winner every three and a half minutes.

Awaiting Halep in the quarterfinals is No.10 seed Ekaterina Makarova, who won her fourth round match against Julia Goerges earlier in the day on Margaret Court Arena .

** sursa  :--  WTA