Romanian tennis player Simona Halep on Wednesday qualified for the eighths of the WTA1000 USD 2,527,250 tournament in Toronto, after beating China's Shuai Zhang 6-4 6-2 in the second round.
Halep (30 years old, 15 WTA), the number 15, needed an hour and 11 minutes to get the victory.
Simona Halep is now 4-2 in head-to-head matches with Zhang (33 years old, 45 WTA), whom she also defeated this year in the first round in Madrid, 6-2 6-3. The first wins came in 2012, in the first round at Indian Wells, 6-1 6-1, and in 2019, in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, 7-6 (4) 6-1. Zhang secured both wins in 2016, in the first round at the Australian Open, 6-4 6-3, and in the eighth round in Beijing, 6-0 6-3.
The Romanian has secured a USD 30,660 cheque and 105 WTA points, and in the third round she will face the winner between Estonian Anett Kontaveit, the second favorite, and Swiss Jil Teichmann.
Halep has won the Canada Open twice, which is alternately contested in Montreal and Toronto, each time when the competition was held in Montreal (2016, 2018). She also has a final played in Canada in 2015, right in Toronto.AGERPRES