Agnieszka Radwanska needed less than an hour Wednesday to blow past Flavia Pennetta at the Qatar Open. Now, she must prepare to face Venus Williams.
Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki, the top two seeds in Qatar this week, also moved on with relative ease. But fifth seed Ekaterina Makarova was knocked out 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 by Lucie Safarova.
Pennetta lost on her birthday, succumbing to fourth seed Radwanska 6-1, 6-1.
It's Radwanska's deepest tournament run of the year.
"It actually surprised me," she said. "For sure I didn't think it was going to be that quick.
"But I think I really played great tennis out there. I was really aggressive from the beginning and really focused from the beginning, and that worked until the end of the match."
Radwanska will now meet Venus Williams in the last eight.
Fifth seed Ekaterina Makarova became the biggest casualty of the event so far as she lost 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 to Lucie Safarova, who will now face Andrea Petkovic — a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 victor over Zarina Diyas.
Kvitova and Wozniacki advanced when their opponents resigned their matches with injuries.
Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka beat Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, while Carla Suarez Navarro overcame Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Contributing: Sportal.com.au