Simona Halep defeated Andrea Petkovic to advance to the next round but withdrew her match against Ana Ivanovic due to a hip injury at the China Open in Beijing on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Romanian just survived a three set matchup against Andrea Petkovic of Germany 7(7)-6(4) 5-7 7(7)-6(1).

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Halep experienced back pain and discomfort on her hips during the two hours and 35 minutes match against Petkovic. She immediately went to the doctors after the game.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) announced on Twitter later that Halep withdrew from her quarterfinals matchup against ninth seeded Ana Ivanovic citing injury to her hips.

Ivanovic is now the first player to make it into the semifinals.

The French Open finalist had a tremendous year, coming from 11^th ranked to World No. 2. She won the WTA tournaments at the Qatar Open in Doha and the BRD Bucharest Open.

Halep was a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open, finalist at the French Open and a semifinalist at Wimbledon but was stunned in the third round by Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

She also exited early last week at the Wuhan Open where she was defeated in the second round by Garbine Muguruza in three sets.

Despite the withdrawal, Halep has already secured a spot at the season-ending WTA Tour Finals at Singapore slated to start late next month, but will she be able to compete?

The list comprises of Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Halep, Petra Kvitova, Eugenie Bouchard, Agnieszka Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki.

China's Li Na is ninth on the list but has recently retired from tennis. If Halep is unable to compete in Singapore, then the lucky number 10 on the list will replace her.

So who will be that lucky gal? Angelique Kerber, who despite losing her third round match against Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets 6-2 4-6 3-6, has accumulated enough points but still has contention from Ekaterina Makarova who also lost her third round matchup against Roberta Vinci 1-6 6-0 5-7.

With just a little more than two weeks left before Singapore, both Kerber and Makarova should be inspired to do their best in the remaining four WTA events.

TagsAna Ivanovic, Angelique Kerber, Ekaterina Makarova