Romania's Halep, Cirstea to meet in BNP Parisbas Open women's singles R16

Romanian tennis players Simona Halep and Sorana Cirstea will face off in the women's singles round of 16 of the 8,584,055-USD BNP Paribas Open 2022 WTA 1,000 tournament at Indian Wells, US, after winning their matches on Sunday in round of 32, Agerpres reports.

Halep, 30, world number 26, the 2015 champion of the tournament, defeated young American player Cori "Coco" Gauff, world number 17, who turned 18 on Sunday, 6-3 6-4.

This is Halep's second wins in as many meets with Gauff, and she hopes to reach the quarterfinals of the California tournament for the fifth time in her career.

Her next opponent will be compatriot Sorana Cirstea 31, world number 27, who defeated Russian Ana Kalinskaya, 23 world number 90, 5-7 6-1 6-0, in two hours and 22 minutes.

Last time Halep and Cirstea faced off was 12 years ago, in the qualifiers of the Cincinnati Masters tournament. Cirstea leads Halep 2-1 in the head-to-head count.

Each of them have won 94,575 USD and 120 WTA singles points for their performance so far at Indian Wells.