Defending champion and top seed Qinwen Zheng of China defeated Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian for the first time in three career matches in the Palermo Ladies Open quarterfinals on Friday in Italy.

Zheng didn’t have to save a break point in the 6-1, 6-1 victory over seventh-seeded Cristian, who saved 8 of 13. Zheng won 84.2 percent (16 of 19) of her first-serve points, to 58.3 percent (14 of 24) for Cristian.

Zheng advances to the semifinals against fourth-seeded Diane Parry, who won an all-French quarterfinal against Chloe Paquet 7-5, 1-6, 6-4.

Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu defeated American Ann Li 6-3, 6-4 and will face second-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, who emerged from a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6) battle with Australia’s Astra Sharma. Muchova converted 4 of 5 break points, to 4 of 10 for Sharma.

Hungarian Grand Prix

Germany’s Eva Lys rallied from 5-3 down in the third set to beat the Slovak Republic’s Rebecca Sramkova 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals in Budapest.

Lys advanced to her first tour-level semifinal, where she faces top seed Diana Shnaider of Russia, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Germany’s Ella Seidel. Shnaider was 4 of 8 on break-point conversions.

The other quarterfinals each went three sets, as the Slovak Republic’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova rallied past Russia’s Elina Avanesyan 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; and Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 over the Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens.

–Field Level Media