Premium
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep easily qualified for the quarterfinals of the WTA 250 grass tournament in Birmingham (England), with total prizes of 251,750 dollars, on Wednesday, by beating British Harriet Dart 6-3, 6-2.
Halep (30 years old, the 20th in the WTA), the second seed, needed only 62 minutes to be victorious.
Simona Halep, the 2019 Wimbledon champion, had beaten Dart (aged 25, the 106th in the WTA) in their only previous match, the 2020 Open at the Australian Open, in the second round, 6-2, 6-4.
Dart, who finished with an ace and 5 double faults, started well and led 2-0, but then lost the next five games, with Halep winning 6-3. Dart also led in the second set, 1-0 and 2-1, after which Simona (5 and a double mistake) tied five games in a row, winning 6-2.
Halep secured a cheque for 6,200 dollars and 60 WTA points, and will play in the quarterfinals against another British woman, Katie Boulter, who defeated Caroline Garcia (France) 7-6 (5), 6-1. This will be the first duel between Halep and Boulter (25 years old, the 141st in the WTA).
Also on Wednesday, Sorana Cirstea qualified for the quarterfinals, after 6-1, 6-1 with the Serbian Aleksandra Krunic.
AGERPRES .
