Tennis: Simona Halep qualifies for quarter-finals of WTA tournament in Madrid, in a quick victory

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world's no. 3, easily qualified for the quarter-finals of the WTA tournament in Madrid, with total prizes worth 7,021,128 US dollars, after defeating Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova, 6-0, 6-0. Halep (27) only needed 44 minutes to seal her victory against Kuzmova (20), world's no. 46. Simona Halep, who previously won the Madrid tournament two times, in 2016 and 2017, has received 160,920 euros and 215 WTA points for reaching this far in the competition, following next to meet the winner of the match between Australian Ashleigh Barty (23 of age, WTA's) and Kazakh Iulia Putintseva (24, WTA's 43). Halep, who was watched from the stands by Ilie Nastase and Nadia Comaneci, will also play on Wednesday in the doubles round of 16 event against the top seeds, Czech players Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova. AGERPRES (RO-author: Mihai Tenea, editor: Teodor Ciobanu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)