Halep makes Qatar quarters

DOHA: Simona Halep shrugged off injury concerns to record a straight sets victory over Anastasija Sevastova on Thursday to progress to the Qatar Open quarter-finals.

The world number two won 6-4, 6-3, hit 29 winners and needed four match points before overcoming her Latvian opponent, who is ranked 15th in the world. Coming into the match, Halep admitted she had lingering concerns about an ankle injury which had kept her out of action since her defeat to Caroline Wozniacki in the Australian Open final last month.

But she seemed relatively untroubled breaking her opponent’s serve late in each set to advance to the last eight. Defending champion and world number three Karolina Pliskova though is out.