Madrid Open: Sherif takes out seed Mertens, moves into quarter-finals

Egyptian Mayar Sherif edged out Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 24 seed, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 to move into the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open at the Caja Magica on Monday.

She is the first player from Egypt to reach this stage at a WTA 1000 event.

Sherif, ranked No 59, will play the winner of the match between Russian wildcard Mirra Andreeva and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, next.

The Egyptian won against Italian Camila Giorgi (4-6, 6-4 ret.), Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, the No 30 seed (6-2, 7-6 (3)) and Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the No 5 seed (7-6 (2), 6-3) in the previous rounds of the Madrid tournament.

Earlier in the tournament, Mertens, ranked No 29, defeated Canadian Rebecca Marino (6-3, 6-1) and German Jule Niemeier (6-3, 6-4).

Madrid WTA 1000, other results (Caja Magica, clay, USD 7.652.174, most recent results first):

• Iga Swiatek vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Jessica Pegula vs. Martina Trevisan
• Paula Badosa vs. Maria Sakkari
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Petra Martic
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Mirra Andreeva vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Irina-Camelia Begu (31) beat Liudmila Samsonova (14): 6-4, 6-4