Halep, Svitolina, Murray enter quarters

Paris: Simona Halep established her credentials to become the newest French Open champion with a blistering 6-1, 6-1 victory over Carla Suarez-Navarro to reach the quarter-finals on Monday.Halep settled faster and raced into a 5-0 lead before Suarez Navarro could register on the scoreboard.

The Spaniard finally held her serve for 5-1 when Halep made a rare forehand error to end a 15-stroke rally, but the Romanian put that blip behind her to seal the set with a backhand pass a game later.As the two kissed at the net, Halep kindly patted her opponent on the back, and the Spaniard could hardly wait to get out of there.

World number one Andy Murray made short work of unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov to reach the quarterfinals with a clean-as-you-like 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory.The 30-year-old Briton made only one unforced error in pocketing the opening set and although he did drop serve late in the second he broke back immediately to take complete control of his first meeting with the talented Russian.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina dug deep to produce her best tennis in adversity, beating Croatian qualifier Petra Martic 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to book a quarterfinal spot.Martic, ranked 290th in the world after a 10-month injury layoff last year, was two points from victory at 5-2, 30-0 on her opponent's serve, but Svitolina unleashed a barrage of winners to claim 20 of the last 26 points.Paris-based Svitolina, one of the tournament favourites, next faces Romanian Simona Halep.

Martic, playing in the fourth round here for the second time, was no pushover. She had beaten two seeded players in previous rounds and was close to adding a third when she served for the match at 5-3.Japan's Kei Nishikori reached his seventh Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 win over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. Seventh seed Marin Cilic advanced into the quarter-finals after South Africa's Kevin Anderson, retired when Cilic was 6-3, 3-0 up.