By Adrianna Outlaw | Thursday, August 13, 2015

 

Simona Halep snapped Angelique Kerber's seven-match winning streak with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory to reach the Toronto quarterfinals.

Photo credit: Phillip Sutherland/corleve

Only seven seeds were still standing when Rogers Cup play began today.

In a week where several top seeds have bit the dust in Toronto, Simona Halep refused to wilt.

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The No. 2 seeded Halep held off red-hot Angelique Kerber, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, snapping the Stanford champion's seven-match winning streak.

Halep raised her record to 9-4 against Top 20 opponents on the season in advancing to her ninth quarterfinal in 12 tournament starts. The Indian Wells champion will play defending Rogers Cup champion Agnieszka Radwanska for a spot in the final four.

The sixth-seeded Radwanska repelled Alize Cornet, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, in two hours, six minutes.

Belinda Bencic battled past Sabine Lisicki, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (3), too book her quarterfinal spot against either fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic or qualifier Polona Hercog.


Bencic followed up wins over former Grand Slam finalists Eugenie Bouchard and Caroline Wozniacki with solid serving to set up her first-strike. She served 76 percent in the two-hour victory, avenging a straight-sets loss to Lisicki in the grass of Birmingham in June.

Italian veteran Roberta Vinci broke serve six times in a 6-4, 6-3 decision over Daria Gavrilova. Vinci reached her third Rogers Cup quarterfinal in the last five years. The 53rd-ranked Italian will play either world No. 1 Serena Williams or 16th-seeded Andrea Petkovic in the quarterfinals.

In an all-qualifier battle, Lesia Tsurenko topped Germany's Carina Witthoeft, 6-3, 6-4. She will face 15th-seeded Sara Errani, who swept Victoria Azarenka, 7-5, 6-3. It was Errani's second win in nine meetings with the former world No. 1.