Halep, Pliskova, varro advance at Wuhan Open

Wuhan (Chi), Sep 27: US Open runner-up Karoli Pliskova of the Czech Republic beat compatriot Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-5 to reach the third round of the Wuhan Open tennis tourment here.

The world No.6 hit 12 aces, 10 more than Safarova and broke her serves four times to win the match in style on Monday. Safarova committed five double-faults and scored 14 points less than Pliskova, reports Xinhua.

Fourth seed Simo Halep's opening outing at the Wuhan Open came to a premature end when Iri-Camelia Begu retired midway through a Romanian second-round encounter.

Halep, who arrived in Chi with just six wins to her credit in the past three years in Asia, had a quicker-than-expected win on Monday as a back injury forced compatriot Begu to call it a day when trailing 3-6, 0-2.

Standing between Halep and her first quarter-fil spot in Wuhan will be either Roberta Vinci or Yaroslava Shvedova.

Seventh seed Carla Suarez varro of Spain beat Yani Wickmayer of Belgium 6-4, 6-3, to set up a third-round clash against the winner between Chi's Zhang Shuai and Britain's Johan Konta, a filist here in 2014.

Zhang, who reached the semi-fils in both the Korea Open and the Pan Pacific Open this month, maintained her form with a three-set win over Chinese veteran Peng Shuai 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.

"Today I reached 40 in my ranking. I'm quite happy with the current ranking," said Zhang, who reached the quarter-fils of the Australian Open in January.

"The past year, I have experienced a lot with a lot of surprises. The past year allowed me to dream something, the Grand Slam. I want to break my record and reach a higher ranking. We have many world-class events in Chi. That offers us the chance to improve," she added.

Another player who embraced recent resurgence on hard court is Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. The former world No.1 held off former US Open champion Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-2 in the first round after she captured her first title of this season at Pan Pacific Open. Wozniacki also reached the US Open semi-fils before losing to eventual champion Angelique Kerber.

Other players into the second round included 10th seeded Dominika Cibulkova, who outlasted Alize Cornet of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Petra Kvitova, 14th seed and the tourment champion in 2014, eased past Latvia's Jele Ostapenko 6-3, 6-1. Kristi Mladenovic of France defeated Coco Vandeweghe 7-6(5), 6-3 to face world No.1 Kerber in the second round. IANS