Top seed Simona Halep advances in WTA Guangzhou Open

Top seed Simona Halep of Romania defeated Timea Babos of Hungary in straight sets in second-round play Wednesday in the WTA Guangzhou International Women`s Open, as all remaining seeded players advanced.

Halep, ranked number two in the world, downed Babos 6-4, 6-0. The Romanian was defeated in the semifinals of the US Open this month by eventual champion Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

Number three seed Sara Errani of Italy beat China`s Zhang Kai-Lin 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-2, losing the first set in a tiebreaker.

Serbia`s Jelena Jankovic, seeded fourth, downed Francesca Schiavone of Italy 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, while number five seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia eliminated Poland`s Urszula Radwanska in straight sets 6-0, 6-1.

Sixth seed Monica Niculescu from Romania beat Sweden`s Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 6-2.

China`s top player Zheng Saisai, seeded eighth, downed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-1, 7-6 (13/11) after taking the final set in a lengthy tiebreaker.

Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic defeated Serbia`s Bojana Jovanovski 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).

Belgium`s Yanina Wickmayer beat Puerto Rico`s Monica Puig 6-3, 6-4. Puig had upset number two seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany in the first round. 

The other seeded player to lose so far was Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, at number seven, who was defeated in the first round by Jovanovski 6-4, 6-2.

Players are battling for prize money of $250,000.