Madrid, May 1: 21st-ranked Simona Halep played some of her best tennis at the Madrid Open again in defeating home crowd favourite Paula Badosa in straight sets to reach the last 16 on Saturday for the seventh time in 11 appearances.
The two-time Madrid Open champion had 21 winners as she defeated No. 2-ranked Badosa 6-3, 6-1 on the Caja Mágica centre court.
Badosa, at a career-high ranking, converted only one of her seven break points against Halep. The Spaniard broke through on home soil last year with a run to the Madrid semi-finals as a 62nd-ranked wild card.
Halep won consecutive titles in Madrid in 2016 and 2017, and was runner-up in 2014 and 2019. She has 29 main draw wins, behind only the 31 she has at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. Only three-time champion Petra Kvitova has won more main draw matches than Halep in Madrid, with 32.
Unseeded in Madrid for the first time in nine years, Halep hadn’t played since Indian Wells in March. The Romanian has been showing a more aggressive game under new coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
Another former No. 1, Victoria Azarenka, rallied past Tamara Zidansek 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in 2 hours, 20 minutes in her first match since the third round in Miami, when she retired for personal reasons. (AP)
