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NEW YORK. — Second seed Simona Halep and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova reached their first US Open tennis quarter-finals while old-hands Victoria Azarenka and Flavia Pennetta also went through. Halep overcame injury and 30-degree heat to set-up a last-eight clash against two-time runner-up Azarenka. Halep needed 2hr 38 min, as well as a 10-minute heat break, to down German 24th seed Sabine Lisicki 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-2. Halep (23) is the first Romanian in the last eight in New York since Irina Spirlea went to the 1997 semi-finals.

But she did it the hard way, letting two set points slip away in the first set before then requiring a medical time-out. — AFP.