Begu and Olaru advanced to WTA women's doubles round of 16 in Cincinnati

Romanian duo Irina Begu and Raluca Olaru qualified on Monday in the round of 16 of the WTA women's double in Cincinnati (Ohio), with prizes worth 2,536,154 US dollar, after defeating 8th seeded Abigail Spears (US)/Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia), with a score of 3-6, 7-5, 10-6. The Romanian nationals managed to win the event in one hour and 44 minutes and secured a 9,545 US-dollar cheque, as well as 105 WTA points.

Their next opponents will be the winners of the event between the pairing made up of Shuko Aoyama (Japan)/Darija Jurak (Croatia) and US pairing Lauren Davis/Alison Riske. Romanian-Taiwanese duo Monica Niculescu/Su-Wei Hsieh also qualified on Monday after defeating the the pairing made up of Johanna Konta (UK)/Christina McHale (US), with a score of 6-2, 6-2. Their next opponents will be the winners of the event between Kristina Mladenovic (France)/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) and Lucie Hradecka/Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic/No. 6).

Simona Halep, seeded 2nd, is to face off in the second round US Taylor Townsend (aged 21, WTA's 134th), who defeated another player who came from qualifications, namely Monica Puig (Puerto Rico), with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

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