Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic eliminated Romanian top seed and defending champion Simona Halep from the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships tournament.

Ivanovic will thus play in the quarterfinals after the 7-6(2), 6-2 win against Halep on Wednesday.

"It was a great battle in the first set, and she's such a great player and I really had to raise my game, which I think I did. It was not easy but I'm really thrilled to be through,” the Serbian player said, cited by Wtatennis.com.

The Romanian won last year’s Dubai tournament.

Simona Halep announced in late-January that she would not play in Dubai and Doha as she needed to have a nose intervention. However, she then changed her mind and decided to play the two WTA tournaments.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com