Western & Southern Open: Sabalenka reaches quarter-finals

No 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka beat No 14 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-3 to reach the last eight of the Western & Southern Open at the Linder Tennis Family Center in Cincinnati on Thursday night.

Sabalenka will face Ons Jabeur on Friday.

Ahead of her victory, the Belarusian edged out American qualifier Ann Li (7-5, 2-6, 6-4).

Kasatkina, ranked No 13, defeated American wild card Peyton Stearns (6-2, 6-1) and French lucky loser Varvara Gracheva (6-3, 6-1) in the previous rounds of the WTA Cincinnati 1000.

Cincinnati WTA 1000, other third-round results:

• Linda Noskova vs. Coco Gauff
• Ons Jabeur beat Donna Vekic: 5-2 ret.
• Marie Bouzkova beat Jessica Pegula (3): 6-4, 6-0
• Jasmine Paolini (Q) beat Elena Rybakina (4): 4-6, 5-2 ret.
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Qinwen Zheng: 3-6, 6-1, 6-1
• Karolina Muchova beat Maria Sakkari (8): 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
• Marketa Vondrousova (10) beat Sloane Stephens: 7-5, 6-3