DOHA: Simona Halep ousted fourth-seeded Sara Errani in one of four one-sided quarter-finals at the Qatar Open on Friday.

Halep, the seventh seed, eliminated Errani 6-2, 6-0 in 52 minutes and takes on Agnieszka Radwanska, the second-seeded former Wimbledon finalist, for a place in the final after the Pole earned a third consecutive semi-final berth when she quickly dispatched Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-2, 6-1.

None of the quarter-final winners on Friday lost more than four games with fifth-seeded Jelena Jankovic’s 6-1, 6-3 win over third-seeded Petra Kvitova the closest of the four.

Jankovic next has a semi-final with Angelique Kerber, the sixth-seeded German, whose progress came with embarrassing ease — 6-0, 6-1 against Petra Cetkowska.

DEL POTRO, MURRAY TUMBLE

ROTTERDAM: Top seed Juan Martin del Potro and number two Andy Murray were both knocked out of the Rotterdam World Tennis in quarter-final upsets on Friday by the same 6-3, 6-4 scorelines.

Latvian Ernests Gulbis ended Del Potro’s winning run when he beat the top seed, while unseeded Croatian Marin Cilic won his eighth match in a row this season with Murray his latest victim.

Third seed Tomas Berdych maintained the seeded status quo with his 6-7 (9-11), 6-2, 6-4 comeback over Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz taking nearly two-and-a-half hours to set up a semi-final against Gulbis.

In the other semi-final, Cilic will play Dutchman Igor Sijsling, who beat German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

NISHIKORI IN SEMIS

MEMPHIS (Tennessee): Defending champion Kei Nishikori of Japan rallied to beat Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr. 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals of the US National Indoor Tennis Championships on Friday.

The top-seeded Nishikori will next play 35-year-old American Michael Russell, who upset third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in another quarter-final match.

Fourth-seeded Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan beat American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov 6-1, 6-4 in another match and will next face Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-3), 6-3 winner over American Jack Sock.—Agencies