Romania's Halep advances to Rogers Cup women's singles quarters

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world number four, on Thursday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women's singles event at the 2.83-million-USD Rogers Cup WTA tournament in Toronto after defeating Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-1. 

Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion, prevailed in just 66 minutes over an opponent who came back after a long hiatus. 

In the Halep versus Kuznetsova head-to-head count, the 27-year-old Romanian is now leading 5-3 the 34-year-old Russian, world number 198, winning both their Rogers Cup meets in 2011 in the first round 4-6 6-4 7 -3, and in 2016 - 3-6 6-1 6-1. 

For her performance so far, Halep, a two-time Rogers Cup winner, in 2016 and 2018, secured 60,455 US dollars and 190 WTA singles points. In the quarter-finals she will play the winner between Latvian Jelena Ostapenko and Czech Marie Bouzkova.