Wozniacki, Pliskova, Halep advance to Toronto quarters

Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki cruised to a surprisingly easy 6-3, 6-1 victory over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament here.

Wozniacki will next take on Czech world No.1 Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals here on Friday, reports Efe.

In a match-up of two of the best WTA players never to have won a Grand Slam title, Radwanska had her serve broken a whopping six times in eight service games.

The 10th-seeded Pole did not help her cause by putting just 49 percent of her first serves in play over the course of the one-hour, 18-minute match.

Wozniacki, the No.6 seed, will square off in Friday's quarter-finals against Pliskova, who is making her debut as the top-ranked player in Toronto. The Czech was leading Japan's Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-7(4-7), 1-0 when her 19-year-old opponent retired with an abdominal injury.

In other action on Thursday, second-seeded Romanian Simona Halep routed Czech Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-0 to set up a quarter-finals clash against France's Caroline Garcia, who eased past American Catherine Bellis 6-4, 6-2.

Czech Lucie Safarova topped Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-7(3-7), 6-2 and now awaits the winner of a round-of-16 match pitting German No. 3 seed Angelique Kerber against American Sloane Stephens.

Fifth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina will play ninth-seeded American Venus Williams in the featured match, with the winner to take on either Spanish reigning Wimbledon champion and No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza or Australian qualifier Ashleigh Barty.

--IANS

tri/dg