Halep through to Italian Open semis

The Spaniard had plenty of chances to get ahead, bringing up five break opportunities throughout the set, but Venus batted away each one and earned the lone break of serve to send the match into a decider. That means she will get a top-four seeding at Roland Garros when she attempts to defend her French Open title.

A spate of unforced errors also proved costly for Venus as Muguruza broke twice to build up a 4-0 lead, and carried the momentum to take the opening set in commanding fashion.

The Spanish third seed, who reached the Rome semi-finals past year before going on to win her sole career grand slam, will next face eighth seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who earlier upset Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2 7-6 (9).

"But she turned it a little bit around. she came back for a few games, and she played really, really well".

"I was very happy today, not even just that I won this match but with the way I played and how I handled the pressure", Svitolina told WTA Insider. It was something for me to be really proud of.

Halep ended the surprising run of qualifier Anett Kontaveit of Estonia with a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Bertens eliminated another qualifier, Daria Gavrilova of Australia, 6-3, 6-3.

Bertens beat Halep in their only meeting on clay in 2012. "I stayed really calm and focused, and this was the first match where I really had confidence in myself". "It's gonna be a tough match, but I'm ready for it, ready for a big fight".

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