Simona Halep has survived a real scare to overcome Andrea Petkovic across three sets to book her place in the quarter-finals of the China Open.

Both players lost serve on a couple of occasions in the opening set, in which the world number two eventually prevailed with the aid of a tie-break, holding her nerve to come out on top 7-4.

Halep was pegged back in the second following a sloppy display which saw her opponent earn four breaks of serve, yet despite this the game remained tight at 6-5 until Petkovic took the 12th game to level up the match.

Having both lost serve three more times in the decider, another tie-break was required to separate the pair, although Halep once more showed her quality to record a 7-1 win in sudden death to advance through in Beijing.

Ana Ivanovic or Sabine Lisicki await the Romanian pro in the next round.