On the solid surface of Melbourne Stadium, world number two Halep defeated Germany’s Laura Siegmund 6-2, 6-4 in just one hour and 33 minutes of play, to confirm her preference for the tournament ahead of the Australian Open (February 8-21).

Russia’s Gippsland Cup main batsman will face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 33rd seat on the global list and winner of the day against Poland’s Ija Swiatik (6-4, 6-2) to reach the semi-finals.

For her part, Osaka, the second seed in the competition, overcame a failure in the first sets of 3-6, to lead Britain’s Katie Poulter with a 6-3 6-1 victory.

23 years old, and ranked third in the world singles ranking, the Japanese will try to overtake Romanian Irina Camelia Peugeot in her next presentation in search of being included in the honor list in the Australian championship.

And Ukrainian Elena Svitolina, fifth-placed in the world ranking, also had to recover from Group A against Poland’s Jelena Ostapenko to win the match 6-7 (4) 6-3. And 6-2.

Svitolina will be competing in the top eight tennis players’ stage against Belgian Elisa Mertens, who joined this situation after defeating French Caroline Garcia 7-6 (1), 6-3.

Estonian Kaya Kanebi and Czech Karolina Moshova will support another series of quarter-final matches, defeating Russia’s Daria Kasatkina (7-5 ​​6-1) and Italian Yasmine Paolini (6-2, 4-6 and 6-4) in that order.

The 2021 edition of the Gippsland Trophy has attracted more than 50 players, including many of the world’s best women’s tennis bats.

agp / here