Monica Niculescu, Gabriela Ruse qualify for the eighths of the doubles in Madrid (WTA)

The Romanian tennis players Monica Niculescu and Gabriela Ruse, in different pairs, qualified, on Friday evening, in the round of 16 of the doubles event of the WTA 1,000 7,705,780 euros tournament in Madrid.

Monica Niculescu and the Japanese Makoto Ninomiya passed the Russians Veronika Kudermetova/Liudmila Samsonova in the first round, 2-6 7-5 10-5, after one hour and 31 minutes, Agerpres informs.

The next opponents of the Niculescu/Ninomiya couple will be the winners of the match of Storm Hunter (Australia)/Elise Mertens (Belgium/N.4) versus Daria Kasatkina (Russia)/Martina Trevisan (Italy).

Gabriela Ruse and Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk defeated Timea Babos (Hungary)/Anna Danilina (Kazakhstan) in the first round, 6-4 4-6 12-10, after one hour and 23 minutes.

In the eighths, Ruse and Kostiuk will face the Russian-Kazakh couple Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/Elena Rybakina.

Qualifying in the eighths is synonymous with a check for 29,300 euros and 120 WTA points for each pair.