Hobart, Australia – Eighth-seeded American Sloane Stephens and her qualifier compatriot Lauren Davis were among Tuesday's second-round winners at the Hobart International tennis event, a final Australian Open tune-up.
The rising star Stephens subdued unseeded Romanian Simona Halep 6-4, 6-0, while Davis ousted second-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Hobart International Tennis Centre.
Stephens and Davis will square off in Thursday's quarterfinals.
In other second-round action on Day 3, Russian Elena Vesnina upended fourth- seeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 and ninth-seeded and defending Hobart champion Mona Barthel of Germany topped South African Chanelle Scheepers 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.
Barthel defeated Belgian Yanina Wickmayer in last year's Hobart finale.
In a pair of first-round matches on Tuesday, third-seeded Czech and last week's Shenzhen runner-up Klara Zakopalova handled Hungarian Timea Babos 6-4, 6-3 and Serb Bojana Jovanovski bested Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-0, 7-6 (9-7).
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