WUHAN (CHINA), Sept 28: Simona Halep reached the Wuhan Open quarterfinals despite being knocked dizzy and forced to retire from a doubles match a day earlier while Britain�s Johanna Konta boosted her chances of making the WTA Finals by beating Carla Suarez Navarro on Wednesday.
The Romanian world number five beat Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-3 before detailing the heavy blow from a ball which left her with bruising to her head.
Halep was struck by a shot fired from the baseline by her doubles partner Jelena Ostapenko, before retiring from the match on Tuesday evening.
�She hit me with the ball, like 150 kilometres (90 miles) per hour. I was dizzy in the first moment, but then was much better,� Halep said.
�I feel pain all around here, but it�s okay,� she added, gesturing to the left side of her head. Halep said she was cleared by doctors to play, and will meet American number nine Madison Keys in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
The Women�s Tennis Association doesn�t have the concussion protocols adopted by other sports to ensure players have fully recovered from blows to the head.
Concussions in tennis are rare � but they do happen, as when China�s Li Na was briefly knocked out in a fall during an Australian Open final in 2013.
Canada�s Eugenie Bouchard cut short her season last year with concussion problems after she slipped and fell in the locker room during the US Open.
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka bowed out of the 2010 US Open after what was described as a �mild concussion� when she tripped getting off a treadmill.
She lasted about half-an-hour into her next match before collapsing on court and being taken off in a wheelchair.
Meanwhile, Australian doubles player Casey Dellacqua sustained a career-ending concussion at the China Open in 2015, retiring in May this year.
Head injuries are an increasingly hot issue in sport, prompting a raft of rule changes in rugby union, rugby league and American football.
On the other hand, Britain�s Johanna Konta boosted her hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals with victory over Spain�s Carla Suarez Navarro.
Konta, seeded 11th, beat the seventh seed 7-5, 7-6 to reach the quarterfinals for the second time.
She also closed the gap on Suarez Navarro in the Race to Singapore, with the Spaniard in the eighth and final qualifying place, two ahead of Konta.
The Briton will play Angelique Kerber or Petra Kvitova in the last eight.
American Madison Keys, currently ninth in the WTA Finals standings, is through to the last eight along with ninth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat Venus Williams 6-2, 6-2. � Agencies
