China's Yuan Yue reached the quarterfinal round of a clay court tournament on the WTA Tour for the first time in her career in Rouen, France, on Thursday, beating France's Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6).
The Chinese fourth seed extended her hot streak from the concluded hard court season when she won her first Tour-level title at Austin and enjoyed a nine-match run, including a win against Zheng Qinwen, the highest-ranked Chinese female player and the only in the WTA Top 10 list.
File photo of Yuan Yue. /CFP
Yuan's ranking effectively rose to No. 36 after reaching the quarterfinal, where she will meet American Sloane Stephens.
Elsewhere in ATP tournaments, Norway's Casper Ruud defeated Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open in Spain, winning the first five games of the first set and overcoming four aces by the Australian to clinch the match in 73 minutes.
Fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia was unable to follow up on the momentum of his victory over Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, as he dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision to 16th-seeded Arthur Fils of France.
In Germany's Munich, Holger Rune of Denmark notched a 6-4, 6-2 win over Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia to advance to the third round of the BMW Open, taking the match with seven aces and winning 92.9 percent of his first-serve points (26 of 28).
(With input from Reuters)