The Romanian-Japanese pair Monica Niculescu/Miyu Kato qualified for the semifinals of the doubles event of the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), equipped with total prizes of 780,637 US dollars, on Friday, after scoring 6-2, 6-3 against the pair Zhaoxuan Yang (China)/Vera Zvonareva (Russia), told Agerpres.
Niculescu and his partner defeated the fourth seeded in just 59 minutes of playing.
Niculescu and Kato never lost their serve, saving the opponents' two break points.
The Romanian-Japanese pair secured a cheque of 13,900 US dollars and 185 WTA points in doubles.
Niculescu and Kato will next face the pair formed by Luisa Stefani (Brazil) and Shuai Zhang (China) in the penultimate act of the competition.