Halep secures top seeding after gritty fight-back

SHENZHEN: Simona Halep guaranteed top seeding for this month’s Australian Open after battling back from a set down to defeat Duan Yingying 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in Shenzhen on Wednesday. The Romanian is now assured to remain world number one ahead of Caroline Wozniacki and Garbine Muguruza for the season’s first Grand Slam which begins in Melbourne on January 15.

Looking for a first victory over a top 10 player and cheered on by her home fans, the powerful world number 91 from China blasted her way to the first set without conceding a single break point.

Halep roared back, dropping just three more games to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA Tour event that she won in 2015 after an hour and 37 minutes of action.“I knew that she’s playing hard and hitting every ball, so I knew that I had to be very strong in my legs,” Halep said after the match in the southern Chinese city that borders Hong Kong. “After the first set, I knew I had to find the rhythm a little bit, to stay closer to the baseline and just open the court better, which I did very well. “It was not easy, even though the scores were 6-1, 6-2. It was a very tough match.” Halep, who posted 21 winners to just 13 unforced errors, will next face another big hitter in teenage sensation Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus.

Wozniacki commands in Auckland: Caroline Wozniacki coasted into the quarterfinals of the WTA Auckland Classic on Wednesday, declaring herself satisfied with the way she is fine-tuning ahead of the Australian Open.

The tournament top seed and world number three took less than hour to dismiss Croatian Petra Martic 6-2, 6-2 with only a slight blip when she dropped her serve at the start of the second set.

The Danish star promptly responded by breaking Martic’s next three service games to take a match she described as a balancing act between a desire to win and preparation for the opening Grand Slam of the year. “It’s a bit of both. You’ve worked on everything you need to work on in your (off) season and right now it’s trying to incorporate that into your match,” she said.

“I’m trying to stay aggressive, I’m trying to get some good first serves in. I still made some unforced errors. It’s just taking a few matches to feel 100 percent but I think I played pretty well today.” Second seed Julia Goerges of Germany gave notice that she remains a contender with an impressive 6-4, 6-0 win over Viktoria Kuzmova from Slovakia.

Goerges will play Slovenian Polona Hercog in the quarter-finals and is on track to meet third-seed Barbora Strycova in the semis. Strycova plays Hsieh Su-Wei in the final eight after putting in another marathon effort to seal a 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 second-round victory over Swede Johanna Larsson.

She also needed three sets to down Sara Errani in the first round and has so far spent more than five hours on court in two matches. Agnieszka Radwanska, in the top half of the draw with Wozniacki, beat American Taylor Townsend 6-3, 7-5 in the second round to set up a quarter-final against Sachia Vickery. Wozniacki faces another American, 19-year-old Sofia Kenin, who is ranked 122 in the world.