Australian Open: Happy Simona Halep eases into last eight

Simona Halep plays a backhand return to Japan's Naomi Osaka in their fourth round clash yesterday. Pic/AFP

World number one Simona Halep eased into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open yesterday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over unseeded Naomi Osaka of Japan in 81 minutes. "I'm really happy that I'm back in the quarter-finals," said the Romanian, who last made it this far in 2015 and has been nursing a troublesome ankle that she rolled in her first-round match.'

"The injury is still there. I feel it but I'm trying not to think about it and give it everything." Halep was delighted to be on court for 143 minutes less than her previous match against Lauren Davis.

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