ROMANIA’s Simona Halep blows a kiss after she defeated Ukraine’s Leisa Tsurenko in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship in Dubai, Wednesday. AP AT WINDY DUBAI

DUBAI, U.A.E. — Former winners Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep battled through brisk desert winds to advance into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday.

I didn’t play good today. I started badly

Second seed Kvitova outlasted American qualifier Jennifer Brady 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.

Crowd favorite and third seed Halep coped with the gusty conditions the Aviation Club as she beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 7-5, breaking seven times.

Ukraine’s Tsurenko managed just a single point over the last three games as former number one Halep demonstrated her superiority by taking a 7-0 lead in their head-to-head record.

Fourth-seeded Karolina Pliskova was tested by Alison Riske, with the Czech taking more than two hours to produce a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) victory.

The 2015 finalist won a monster game late in the second set, holding for 5-5 after seven deuces plus two set points for her American opponent.

Pliskova broke a game later but dropped serve herself to force a tie-breaker; the decider ended on a first match point after Riske double-faulted.

Fifth seed Angelique Kerber, a semi-finalist on her last two appearances here, lost to Hsieh Su-Wei 5-7, 6-4, 6-0.

The German former world number one dropped serve seven times in the one-and-three-quarter hour contest.

Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro made quick work of Kristina Mladenovic, surprise conqueror of Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka, sending the Dubai-based Frenchwoman out 7-5, 7-5.

Suarez Navarro started on the back foot but rallied to overcome a 5-1 deficit in the first set on the way to victory.

But she was not impressed with her own effort.

“I didn’t play good today. I started badly,” the world number 26 said. “Sometimes is not easy take the confidence back again.