Azarenka 14-0 in 2012 after Doha win

DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka won easily Thursday and Lucie Safarova recorded her second upset at the Qatar Total Open tennis tournament.

Safarova defeated second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in a second-round match Wednesday and took out No. 14-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 Thursday in advancing to the tournament quarterfinals.

Kuznetsova fought off five break points in the first set but Safarova was able to take the tiebreaker. Safarova notched a pair of breaks in the second set to win.

Azarenka improved to 14-0 on the year with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Simona Halep. Azarenka piled up six breaks over Halep's eight service games.

No. 3-seeded Samantha Stosur topped Petra Cetkovska 6-3, 6-2 with five breaks while fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska beat Varvara Lepchenko 7-5, 6-1 and Marion Bartoli, the No. 5 seed, got by Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3, 6-3.

Also Thursday, Yanina Wickmayer was a 6-4, 6-0 winner over Ksenia Pervak, Christina McHale rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision over Shahar Peer, and Monica Niculescu advanced at the expense of Kateryna Bondarenko 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Azarenka plays Wickmayer and Radwanska goes against McHale in one half of the draw's quarterfinals while Stosur faces Niculescu and Bartoli meets Safarova in the other.