TORONTO (AP) Second-seeded Simona Halep of Romania advanced to the Rogers Cup quarterfinals Thursday, beating 13th-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Halep will face sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 winner over Alize Cornet of France.
Top-ranked Serena Williams faced No. 16 Andrea Petkovic of Germany in a night match. Fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia played Slovenia's Polona Hercog in another late match.
Unseeded Belinda Bencic topped Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (3) to keep her run going. The 20th-ranked player from Switzerland opened the tournament with a victory over slumping Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and followed it with an upset win over fifth-ranked Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
Bencic will play the Ivanovic-Hercog winner.
Also, 15th-seeded Sara Errani of Italy beat Belarus' Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-3; Italy's Roberta Vinci topped Russia's Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-3; and Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko beat Germany's Carina Witthoeft 6-3, 6-4.
Vinci will play the Williams-Petkovic winner.
