SYDNEY — World number two Simona Halep overcame a nagging Achilles problem to beat Caroline Garcia of France at the Sydney International on Tuesday ahead of next week's Australian Open.
The Romanian withdrew from the Brisbane International last week because of the injury, which also affected her 2015 campaign, and she called the trainer during her second-round match.
Halep, who was given a first-round bye, said the pain was coming and going but she produced some of her best tennis in the deciding set on the way to a 6-4 2-6 6-1 victory that set up a quarter-final against Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova.