World number three Simona Halep was dumped out of the Madrid Open on Tuesday, losing 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the last 16 to Belgian Elise Mertens, while Dominic Thiem claimed a straightforward win in his first match since March.
Romania’s Halep, who won the Madrid title in 2016 and 2017, is still yet to reach a WTA Tour final this season and this was her earliest exit in the Spanish capital since a 2015 first-round loss.
Halep had sailed through the first two rounds on the Madrid clay without dropping a set but she ended up second best in a match which yielded 15 breaks of serve.
Halep served 10 double faults in the match, Mertens nine.
Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one, was twice a break up in the final set at 3-1 and 4-3 but finally succumbed after just over two and a half hours of play.
In the quarter-finals, 13th seed Mertens will meet her doubles partner, Belarusian seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka, who dispatched American Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-2 in just 52 minutes.
Two other quarter-final line-ups are also settled, with world number one Ashleigh Barty set to meet ninth seed Petra Kvitova while eighth seed Belinda Bencic is up against Spaniard Paula Badosa, ranked 62 in the world.
The final last-eight tie will see Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova play either Maria Sakkari or Karolina Muchova. The Russian edged out Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady 7-5, 6-7 (8/10), 6-3 despite missing a match point in the second set. In the men’s draw, world number four Thiem eased to a 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of American Marcos Giron in his first match for almost two months.
The Austrian, playing for the first time since a surprise loss to Lloyd Harris in Dubai, broke his 91st-ranked opponent’s serve four times and did not face a break point.
Thiem will next face Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who was leading Harris 6-2, 3-0 when the South African retired injured, in the third round. Italian teenager Sinner booked his place in the second round when his opponent Guido Pella withdrew with a leg injury in the second set while trailing 6-2, 4-4.
World number 18 Sinner barely gave Pella time to breathe in the first set, with an early break of service taking him to 3-0.
Another break saw the 19-year-old take the set.
Pella responded in fiery fashion, opening up a 4-1 lead in the second before feeling discomfort in his right leg which, after receiving medical attention on court, ultimately led to his retirement.
“I never played against him before, so you never know what to expect,” said Sinner.
“I was trying to keep focused on what I had to do. I think it has been a good first match obviously.”
Sinner, the Miami Masters runner-up, will face Alexei Popyrin in the second round after the Australian beat German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
