China's Wang Qiang loses to No. 2 seed Halep at Miami Open

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tennis player Wang Qiang lost to No. 2 seed Simona Halep of Romania 6-4, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open on Wednesday.

The world No. 2 Romanian had to recover from a 1-5 deficit and save three set points in the second set before securing the victory in one hour and 37 minutes.

In a match characterized by baseline rallies and service breaking, it was Halep who proved more successful at opening up the court and retaining consistency over long exchanges.

The first set saw five breaks in the first six games as both players found it hard to hold serve. Halep dropped serve twice, but broke the Chinese No. 1 three times before taking the first blood.

The win puts Halep just one win away from moving back up to the top spot two months after being deposed by Japanese sensation Naomi Osaka.

"Every single day that you're No. 1 is a special day. So I will take that. And if I can do it tomorrow, I will be very proud," Halep said after the match.

"When I came here, I didn't think at all about this chance to be No. 1," she added. "It was very far, and I didn't want to think about it. But Now that I'm one match away, I would take it, because it gives me a little bit of pressure. But as I said, I play well with pressure, and I think it's a big challenge," she added.

Wang, seeded 18th in the event, shocked her opponent with three breaks and stormed to a 5-1 lead in the second set. But Halep never gave up and Wang's errors were mounting in the face of Halep's comeback. Halep then reeled off the last six games to win the set at 7-5.

Halep plays either former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova or Marketa Vondrousova, both from the Czech Republic.