Defending champion and top seed Qinwen Zheng from China defeated Jaqueline Cristian of Romania for the first time in three matches in the quarterfinals of the Palermo Ladies Open in Italy on Friday.

Zheng did not need to save a single break point in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over seventh-seeded Cristian, who retired eight of 13 times. Zheng won 84.2 percent (16 of 19) of her first-serve points, compared to 58.3 percent (14 of 24) for Cristian.

Zheng advances to the semifinals to face fourth-seeded Diane Parry, who won the quarterfinals 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 against Chloe Paquet in an all-French match. Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu defeated American Ann Li 6-3, 6-4 and will face the winner of the quarterfinals, second-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic and Australia’s Astra Sharma.

Hungarian Grand Prix

Germany’s Eva Lys came back from a 5-3 deficit in the third set to beat Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the quarter-finals in Budapest.

Lys reached her first tour-level semi-final, where she faced Russian top favorite Diana Shnaider, who beat Germany’s Ella Seidel 6-4, 6-2. Shnaider was successful in breakpoint conversions 4 out of 8 times.

The other quarterfinals each lasted three sets, with Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova beating Russia’s Elina Avanesyan 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich beating Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

–Field Level Media