Dubai Open: Cirstea reaches quarter-finals

Romanian Sorana Cirstea moved into the last eight of the Dubai Open by edging out Croat Donna Vekic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 at The Aviation Club Tennis Centre on Wednesday afternoon.

Cirstea, ranked No 22, will face No 7 seed Marketa Vondrousova next.

The 33-year-old Romanian defeated American Sofia Kenin (6-3, 7-6 (2)) and Russian Veronika Kudermetova, the No 13 seed (6-1, 6-4) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds of the Dubai tournament, Vekic, ranked No 31, won against Chinese Xinyu Wang (6-2, 6-4) and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed (6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0).

Dubai WTA 1000, other last 16 results (The Aviation Club Tennis Centre, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Anastasia Potapova vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Iga Swiatek vs. Elina Svitolina
• Coco Gauff vs. Karolina Pliskova: wednesday
• Elena Rybakina (4) beat Magdalena Frech (Q): 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4
• Anna Kalinskaya (Q) beat Jelena Ostapenko (9): 6-4, 7-5
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Liudmila Samsonova (12): 6-2, 6-2
• Jasmine Paolini beat Maria Sakkari (8): 6-4, 6-2