Summary Simona Halep, Stosur and Pavlyuchenkova advances at the season-ending WTA Tournament of Champions.
SOFIA (AP) - Simona Halep, Samantha Stosur and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were straight-sets winners at the season-ending WTA Tournament of Champions on Wednesday.
Top-seeded Halep defeated seventh-seeded Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 6-4, with a second consecutive round-robin win in the Serdika group easing her way to the semifinals. The Romanian s last match of the group stage will be against Ukraine s Elina Svitolina, who replaced injured Maria Kirilenko.
Former U.S. Open champion Stosur swept to an impressive 6-3, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded Russian Elena Vesnina in the Sredets group, needing only 38 minutes to seal the opening set. Vesnina took a surprise 3-0 lead in the second set before Stosur stormed back to take the match. In Wednesday s last match, Russia s Pavlyuchenkova defeated Svitolina 6-2, 6-4.
