Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep will contest a rematch of their dramatic US Open encounter in the third round of the China Open.
Sharapova's grand slam comeback pitted her against world number two Halep in the opening round in New York and the Russian pulled off an impressive victory.
A 6-4 4-6 6-1 win against fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova in Beijing set up another meeting with Halep, against whom Sharapova boasts a 7-0 record.
Halep eased into the third round after Magdalena Rybarikova pulled out trailing 6-1 2-1.
The Romanian said of facing Sharapova again on wtatennis.com: "I played her many times, was close many times. Now it's a new day and we'll see. Maybe I can win. I really want to do it so I will give everything.
"I should have served better to win that (US Open) match. I played pretty good, and she played amazing.
"It's different that it's not the first round. It's always tough to play the first match of the tournament but here we are in the third round, so maybe it's going to be something different."
Coco Vandeweghe also withdrew, a back problem causing her to throw in the towel trailing Daria Gavrilova 6-3 2-0, all but ending her chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals.
Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska came from a break down in the second set to defeat China's Zhang Shuai 7-5 7-5.
Fourth seed Karolina Pliskova defeated Andrea Petkovic 6-4 6-4 while Petra Kvitova was a 6-4 6-4 winner against Varvara Lepchenko.
Source: PA
