By Chris Oddo | Thursday, May 13, 2015
Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova eased into the quartefinals with straight-sets wins on Thursday in Rome.
Photo Source: Mike Hewitt/Getty
With Serena Williams out of the competition the title hopes of Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova dramatically increased on Thursday, and each did their part to move closer to en eventual final with straight-sets victories at the Foro Italico.
Halep was first to move through, and she did so decisively against Venus Williams. Though it looked to be a close one as the pair traded breaks early in the first set on Court Pietrangeli, the Romanian pulled away to win the final four games of the set. She broke early in the second and used her blanketing defense to goad Williams into going for too much in the second set, cruising to victory in an hour.
The victory marks Halep’s first win over Williams in four previous meetings.
Sharapova fell behind Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski early in the opener, but quickly rallied to take control behind 23 winners and six breaks of serve to notch her second career victory over the world No. 73 in two encounters.
Sharapova will face the winner of tonight’s battle between Victoria Azarenka and Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in the quarterfinals.
Halep will take part in an all-Romanian clash in her quarterfinal, facing Alexandra Dulgheru. The qualifier took out 8th-seeded Ekaterina Makarova earlier in the day in straight sets.
In other early action, Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro outlasted Eugenie Bouchard in a back-and-forth battle. Bouchard served for the match three times but was broken on each occasion.
In the final set tiebreaker, the Canadian saved four match points to earn a match point of her own, but promptly double-faulted twice and lost on the next point.
Suarez Navarro will face the Petra Kvitova-Jelena Jankovic winner.