It took Romanian tennis player Simona Halep one hour and 20 minutes to defeat Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, 6-4, 6-2, and advance to the Australian Open quarters on Sunday, January 24. Simona Halep’s victory against number 80 WTA Belgian is her second such performance at the Australian Open. Last year, she made it to the quarterfinals but lost to Dominika Cibulkova.

The Romanian will face Ekaterina Makarova in the quarterfinals which will take place on January 27 and 28.

Upon announcing her win, the Australian Open organizers took to Facebook: "Simona Halep has staked her claim for the 2015 women's title by comprehensively beating Yanina Wickmayer 6-4 6-2. The win makes it back-to-back quarterfinals at Melbourne Park for the 23 year-old Romanian. Is she the one to watch this year? "

The other Romanian who had advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open tournament, Irina – Camelia Begu, lost to  Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard, number 7 WTA, in a match that ended 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. Meanwhile, Russian player Maria Sharapova, number 2 WTA crushed Shuai Peng 6-3, 6-0.

This is the fourth Australian Open Simona Halep plays. Her best result in this tournament so far was playing in the quarterfinals in 2014.

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editor@romania-insider.com