BEIJING: Top seed and world number three Simona Halep breezed past Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic in straight sets Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Shenzhen Open.
Halep, last year's French Open runner-up, made short work of her opponent, winning through 6-3, 6-3 in 62 minutes.
In the semi-finals she will face home player Zheng Saisai, 20, who is ranked 97th but beat fourth seed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 to maintain Chinese interest in the event.
Former world number two Vera Zvonareva's injury devils returned to haunt her as she lasted just 29 minutes in her first WTA quarter-final since 2012 before retiring in tears.
Zvonareva reached the Wimbledon and US Open finals in 2010 but has since been plagued by injury and illness, dropping to 250 in the world, and was attempting to launch a 2015 comeback at the $500,000 tournament.
Swiss number eight seed Timea Bacsinszky, ranked 47 -- who is Zvonareva's doubles partner -- had already broken her once.
In her semi-final she will meet either second seed and world number four Petra Kvitova, or Tereza Smitkova, who were playing the last quarter-final in an all-Czech encounter.
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