Azarenka sweeps into Qatar quarters

DOHA (AFP): World number one Victoria Azarenka swept into the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open with a swift demolition of Romanian Simona Halep on Thursday as Lucie Safarova claimed another top scalp.

Belarusian Azarenka, the Australian Open champion, won 10 games in a row on the way to beating the 63rd-ranked Halep 6-3, 6-1, while Safarova, who had knocked out the second seed Caroline Wozniacki on Wednesday, sent former US and French Open champion and 14th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova packing with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory.

Kuznetsova was the 12th of the 16 seeds in the 64-player draw to crash out of the event over the first four days.

Halep produced only brief moments of brilliance to secure a break in either set, but that was not enough to quell Azarenka, who stepped up her game after trailing 3-1 in the first set and raced to victory thereafter.

“I started slow but I am glad I turned it around,” said Azarenka, the first Belarusian to win a Grand Slam tournament and take the world number one ranking.

She could have won the second set at love, but suffered a glitch in the sixth game when she was broken by the Romanian.