All eyes were on the Simona Halep vs. Venus Williams encounter and the Romanian second seed came out on top 6-3 6-3, keeping alive her chances of a return to the No.1 ranking. Halep will next face the winner of an all-Wang quarterfinal, i.e. seed No.18 Wang Qiang ,who defeated fellow Chinese Wang Yafan 7-5 6-4.
Besides Halep, Petra Kvitova can also dethrone Naomi Osaka from the WTA No.1 position at the end of the tournament, as the Czech beat France’s Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-3. Osaka will keep her top rankings if neither Halep nor Kvitova reach the Miami Open final.