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Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world number two, on Wednesday defeated Russia's Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-2, for the first time in her career, advancing to the women's singles quarter-finals of the 6,381,679-USD China Open tournament. Second-seed Halep, 26, won her first match against the Russian after seven consecutive losses, most recently about one month ago at the US Open first round.
She displayed an almost perfect play in Beijing, where back in 2012 she lost to Sharapova in two sets. This time she won in an hour and 12 minutes. Halep, who last year was defeated in the round of 16 in Beijing, won 149,138 US dollars and 215 WTA singles points. In the quarter-finals, she meets the winner between 11th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and Russian Daria Kasatkina.
