Top seed Angelique Kerber overcame the challenge of Czech Katerina Siniakova in Madrid on Monday while another Czech, Karolina Pliskova, was shown the door.
Pliskova, the No.2 seed, found Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova too tricky on the red clay, falling 6-3 6-3 in 78 minutes.
Kerber, meanwhile, hung on for two hours to post a 6-2 1-6 7-5 victory.
“It was from my side a really up-and-down match. I played really good in the first set, then in the second set the first few games at the beginning of the second set, it was really close,” Kerber said.
“Then she started playing better, putting a lot of balls back. I had too many mistakes in the second set. In the third, I was just trying to finding my game back.
“I was trying to comeback at the end. I know that I can come back and win matches like that when I’m down. So that was actually what was going on in my mind in the third set.”
The win sets up a clash in the last 16 with Eugenie Bouchard, who stunned Maria Sharapova in the match of the tournament on Monday night.
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