MASON (Ohio): Simona Halep stayed on track for a tilt at the world number one spot with a 6-4, 6-3 third-round win over Anastasija Sevastova at the Western & Southern Open on Thursday while top seeds Rafael Nadal and Karolina Pliskova never got a chance to break a sweat before play was halted at the rain-hit tournament.

Czech defending champion Pliskova was up 3-0 in the first set against Camila Giorgi when steady rain moved in and the match was called more than two hours later. Rafael Nadal, the top seed in the men’s bracket, and compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas never started their third-round match before the final drenching began.

Romanian second seed Halep reached the quarter-finals for the fifth straight year in the hardcourt run-up to the US Open and can leapfrog Pliskova as world number one by winning the title.

“To be number one in the world I think is a big thing,” said Halep. “If I deserve the place, for sure I will win it.”

British seventh seed Johanna Konta downed Slovakian 11th seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-4, to move into the quarter-final path of Halep, who won her 15th career WTA title earlier this year at Madrid.

Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza overcame a long rain delay in the third set and fought off three match points before advancing to the quarter-finals.

The sixth-ranked Spaniard’s 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) victory over American Madison Keys set up a last-eight date with eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 32-year-old Russian, a two-time Grand Slam champion, eliminated Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-4.

Sixth seed Caroline Wozniacki stopped the impressive run of 21-year-old Australian qualifier Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-2 to reach the tournament’s quarter-finals for the fourth time.

In the men’s bracket, Grigor Dimitrov rallied from a 4-1 second-set deficit for a 6-3, 7-5 win over Juan Martin del Potro to book a place in the last eight.

Dimitrov will bid for a place in the semi-finals for the second straight year when he faces Japan’s Yuichi Sugita, who reached his first Masters 1000 quarter-final.

The unseeded Sugita overcame Russian Karen Khachanov 6-7 (0-7), 6-3, 6-3 before a thunderstorm forced play to be suspended for more than two hours.

Court conditions more suitable for Olympic swim star Michael Phelps than tennis stars had US 14th seed John Isner, who beat teen Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, happy he snuck in a win between storms.

“Very happy to be off the court,” Isner, who will next face another American in Jared Donaldson, said. “We could have easily, if I didn’t break at 5-all, we could be 2-all in a tie-breaker right now, not finishing. That would suck.”

Third seed Dominic Thiem needed two tie breakers to dispatch France’s Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3) and set up a meeting with Spain’s David Ferrer, who reached his first ATP Masters quarterfinal in his last 11 tries with a 6-4, 6-4 win over 11th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2017