Osaka, Kvitova, Halep Wednesday Winners In Madrid

It was a great day for the top seeds at the Madrid Masters on Wednesday. In third round play, higher seeds went 6-0 lead by the Top 3 trio of Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep.

Osaka had no issues in rolling past Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2,6-3 to reach her first Madrid quarterfinal.

“I think I played well today,” said Osaka. “But I knew that I had to because I’ve played her twice before already and it was on hardcourts and then I didn’t know what to expect today so I tried to stay as focussed as I could.”

Osaka will meet Swiss Belinda Bencic tomorrow. Bencic dominated Kateryna Kozlova 6-0, 6-2.

Defending champ Kvitova won her 9th straight match in Madrid in a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Caroline Garcia.

“I think I really played a good one today, much better than my last match,” Kvitova said.

“I was really prepared for the opponent that I knew pretty well. Caroline, I’ve played her in Miami. She’s always tough – if I’m not playing well, then it’s really tough.”

Kvitova, who is now 7-0 on clay, now faces Kiki Bertens in a rematch of their 2018 final. And she just beat Bertens in Stuttgart last month.

“A tough one for sure,” Kvitova said of the Dutchwoman. “We saw it last year in the final here, how tough it was. We saw it in Stuttgart as well.

“I think we are meeting just too soon in the tournament, I think we should meet later, deeper in the tournament. But that’s the draw unfortunately.

“I like Kiki as a person, I like her coach. It will be a fun one for sure, it will be nice to play against her again. It’s always a big challenge to play against her for sure, especially on the clay. She really enjoys playing on the clay.”

Halep had the win of the day destroying Viktoria Kuzmova 6-0, 6-0 in just 44 minutes. There were 60 points in the match, Halep won 48, Kuzmova 12!

“I don’t think it was her best match,” Halep said. “Maybe she was nervous before the match a little bit. It’s a big tournament and it’s not easy to face the top players. I’ve been in that position. I played my best tennis and I felt good on court.”

The two-time champion moves on to meet Ash Barty on Thursday after the improving Australian beat Yulia Putintseva in three.

Also, Sloane Stephens beat Saisai Zheng and Petra Martic got a third set retirement from Donna Vekic who had a bad hip. Martic has advanced to a meeting with Stephens without winning a match point in her last two matches.

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