MONTREAL (AFP) – World number one Simona Halep crushed seven time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams in straight sets on Thursday at the WTA Montreal event just hours after a delivering a marathon three-hour victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Top seed Halep took no prisoners against Williams, blitzing the 38-year-old American 6-2, 6-2 in just 71 minutes to reach the quarter-finals.
Halep’s match against Pavlyuchenkova was originally scheduled for Wednesday night but heavy rains forced organizers to postpone it until Thursday morning.
The Romanian needed three grueling sets to oust the world No. 28 Russian but had a much easier time against veteran Williams who has yet to win a title in 2018.
Williams has struggled with her form this year and hasn’t won a Grand Slam title since Wimbledon in 2008 when she beat sister Serena in the final.
The reigning French Open champion started quickly, winning the first two games en route to taking the opening set.
She also jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set and after a slight lull in the middle she rebounded to run away with the final four games.
Halep won 77 percent of her first serve points and broke Williams’ serve five times.
Halep next faces number six seed Caroline Garcia, who overwhelmed former World No.1 Maria Sharapova hours earlier.
