Sydney: World number two Simona Halep battled an Achilles injury as she overcame France’s Caroline Garcia in three sets at the Sydney International on Tuesday.
The Romanian, who was was set to make her 2016 debut at last week’s Brisbane International only to pull out with the Achilles injury, downed Garcia 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
Halep, now coached by Australian Darren Cahill, recovered from a faltering second set to power into the quarter-finals where she will face Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova.
“I had pain in the second set. This Achilles pain is coming and going away,” Halep said. “So I’m not sure when it’s coming and when it’s going.”
“I have to stay focused, I have to stay patient, and try to stay there in the match and to not think too much about the pain.
“It’s tough to play with the pain, because when you have pain you always get scared because you don’t know what is going to happen.”
Pliskova dropped only three games in beating Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Halep beat Pliskova in both their previous meetings.
German world number seven Angelique Kerber earlier withdrew from the tournament, adding to a lengthy list of ailing women stars ahead of next week’s Australian Open in Melbourne.
The fourth seed, who won her first-round match against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in fierce heat over three sets on Monday, pulled out citing a gastro-intestinal illness.
Her withdrawal follows that of defending champion Petra Kvitova, who also had gastro-intestinal problems, and second seed Agnieszka Radwanska who dropped out with a leg injury.
Kerber, who lost to Victoria Azarenka in Saturday’s Brisbane International final, said she experienced problems overnight after Monday’s victory.
“I’m very sorry I can’t go on court today but I’m not feeling 100 per cent,” Kerber said.
“I started to feel unwell yesterday and today my stomach is not right. I don’t want to risk my health before Melbourne.”
The trio’s withdrawals came after injury problems at other Australian tournaments for the world’s top-ranked stars - including Serena Williams with a knee ailment, Garbine Muguruza who hurt her foot and Maria Sharapova who injured her forearm.
Among other second-round winners Tuesday were Italy’s Sara Errani over Jelena Jankovic in two tiebreak sets, Swiss eighth seed Belinda Bencic in straight sets over Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova and Australian Samantha Stosur over Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-2.
Stosur is through to the quarter-finals in Sydney for the first time since reaching the final in 2005.
Collated results from the third day of the Sydney International tournament on Tuesday (x denotes seed):
Men
1st round
Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) bt Leonardo Mayer (ARG x7) 6-4, 6-3
Nicolas Mahut (FRA) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA) 6-4, 7-5
Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR x8) bt Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) 6-1, 6-4
Jeremy Chardy (FRA x6) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 6-2, 6-3
Gilles Muller (LUX) bt Borna Coric (CRO) 6-1, 6-4
James Duckworth (AUS) bt Inigo Cervantes-Huegun (ESP) 6-3, 6-2
Federico Delbonis (ARG) bt Sam Groth (AUS) 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5)
Women
2nd round
Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) bt Angelique Kerber (GER x4) walkover (illness)
Monica Puig (PUR) bt Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (SVK) 6-1, 6-0
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) bt Sabine Lisicki (GER) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
Sara Errani (ITA) bt Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (10/8)
Belinda Bencic (SUI x8) bt Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) 6-3, 6-3
Karolina Pliskova (CZE x5) bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 6-3, 6-0
Samantha Stosur (AUS) bt Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 6-4, 6-2
Simona Halep (ROM x1) bt Caroline Garcia (FRA) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
Collated results after the third day of the Hobart WTA International tournament on Tuesday (x denotes seed):
2nd round
Camila Giorgi (ITA x2) bt Nao Hibino (JPN) 6-2, 6-3
Johanna Larsson (SWE) bt Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) bt Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) 6-4, 7-5
Alize Cornet (FRA x7) bt Veronica Cepede (PAR) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
Collated results from the ASB Classic on Tuesday
First round
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) bt Benjamin Becker (GER) 7-6 (10/8), 6-3
Fabio Fognini (ITA x6) bt Joao Sousa (POR) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7/3)
Sam Querrey (USA) bt Aljaz Bedene (GBR) 6-7 (7/5), 7-6 (12/10), 2-1 (retired)
Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x8) bt Jiri Vesely (CZE) 6-3, 7-5
Benoit Paire (FRA x5) bt Michael Venus (NZL) 6-4, 7-6 (7/4)
Lukas Rosol (CZE) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 7-6 (7/5), 6-4
