Halep loses to Pliskova in Madrid Open quarter-finals

Halep was the two-time defending champion and on a 15-match winning streak at the clay-court tournament. But Pliskova gave the Romanian no chance, breaking her serve four times and hitting 20 winners.

"This was one of my best matches of the year," the sixth-seeded Pliskova said. "I feel amazing since in the last six matches I lost to her. I never thought I would beat her. My serve was great and everything went my way." Pliskova's only prior victory from a previous seven matches against Halep was in the 2016 Fed Cup. Pliskova won her 10th career title in April, when the Czech was victorious on clay in Stuttgart. She will play Petra Kvitova or Daria Kasatkina in the semi-finals. Seventh-seeded Caroline Garcia also advanced to the final four after beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-3.

British tennis player Kyle Edmund's dream run at the Madrid Open continued on Thursday as he reached his first quarter-final at an ATP Master 1000 tournament by upsetting eighth seed David Goffin 6-3, 6-3.

Goffin is the second seeded player knocked out by world No. 22 Edmund, back-to-back as he ended Serbian Novak Djokovic's campaign at the tournament in the previous round, reported Efe. Making his Madrid Open debut this year, Edmund needed just 75 minutes to earn his first win over Goffin in the second career match between the Belgian and the Briton.