“I only wanted to be aggressive and wait for the good shots and just go for it, play angles and move on, move on in the court,” Buzarnescu said afterwards.

“I had a slow start because it’s always tough to start this tournament,” Halep said.

“I’m always living in a fantasy world,” she told reporters after the match. “I always wanted to be a superhero and it’s kind of my way of being a superhero…It feels like this suit represents all the women that have been through a lot mentally, physically, with their body to come back and have confidence and to believe in themselves,” she said. “I definitely feel like it is an opportunity for me to inspire a whole different group of amazing women and kids.”

The travails of Kristina Mladenovic continued as the No. 29-seeded Frenchwoman fell 7-6(10), 6-2 in the lone upset on the day to German veteran Andrea Petkovic.

Tough starts went to (1) Halep vs. the Azarenka-Osaka winner, (13) Keys vs. Pavlyuchenkova, (9) Stephens vs. the crafty Strycova, (3) Muguruza vs. the Gavrilova-Bellis winner, (16) Barty vs. Sharapova…

Two of the Top 3 seeds fell Wednesday in Madrid.

A host of former No. 1s were in action Monday in Madrid.

Interesting starts were dealt to Ostapenko vs. Irina-Camelia Begu (winner to face Maria Sharapova), Wozniacki vs. Daria Gavrilova, and Vandeweghe vs. Kristina Mladenovic.

Interesting starts for (1) Woz 2nd rd. vs. the Errani/Flipkens winner, the struggling (3) Radwanska vs. the riser Vekic, and the back-from-injury (2) Kuznetsova vs. Wang who she has struggled against in past encounters…

Wow, the former No. 1 and younger Williams to start against the Indian Wells winner Osaka, winner to play (4) Svitolina…

“She has everything in her game,” Venus said of Sevastova. “And it was a quick comeback from yesterday, where you have the emotions of, ‘Hey, this feels like a final [against Serena]!’ But guess what, you’re only in the fourth round.”

“[Serena’s] level is super-high and it was very difficult to close out the match, just getting one ball back,” Venus lauded her sister in her post-match press conference. “I think just I have played more matches in the last year. Even though I haven’t even played that much this year, the matches in the last year count.”

The sister showdown is set for Monday.

Former Wimbledon champions Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza meet Sunday for the Doha title.

The defending champion is out of Doha.