Top seed and world number three Simona Halep, along with second seed Petra Kvitova, ranked four, both breezed past lowly opponents in straight sets Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Shenzhen Open. Romanian Halep, last year's French Open runner-up, made short work of Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic, winning through 6-3, 6-3 in 62 minutes.
Double Wimbledon winner Kvitova needed slightly longer to dispose of her fellow Czech Tereza Smitkova but did so 7-5, 6-4. She will play Swiss number eight seed Timea Bacsinszky in the semi-finals, after former world number two Vera Zvonareva's injury devils returned to haunt her and she retired in tears just 29 minutes into her first WTA quarter-final since 2012.