The second-seeded German player advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over unseeded Russian Daria Kasatkina.
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“My elbow is feeling much better”, said Kerber.
Angelique Kerber, the second seed from Germany, bounced back to beat Elina Svitlolina of Ukraine 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 to advance to a quarter-final meeting with 19-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina, a 7-5, 6-3 victor over Italian Roberta Vinci.
Tenth-seeded Madison Keys defeated 16th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6, 1-6, 6-0.
It took Keys just 20 minutes to take the first set against Williams in their third-round clash as she answered everything her more-fancied opponent could muster with consummate ease.
Bouchard, who beat Kucova in a Federation Cup match in their only previous meeting in 2014, looked rattled in the third as unforced errors ended rally after rally until she finally hit long on match point and Kucova let out a shriek in victory.
Kerber and Halep, the top two players left in the tournament, have met five times. Halep has won nine of her last 11 matches on hard court. “We’ve played a lot of good matches in the past”. “I think it’ll depend on the day”.
“I’m really looking forward to playing against Simona again”.
“I just had to stay patient for every ball and to keep fighting because I knew that if I stay there for every ball, she can miss more than me”.
Kerber needed exactly one hour to oust Kasatkina from her first Rogers Cup appearance, although the 19-year-old had a good week beating 13th seeded Samantha Stosur and seventh seeded Italian Roberta Vinci. Last year in Toronto, the 24-year-old reached the final, but lost to Belinda Bencic after retiring in the third set with an illness.
And now, Halep will take on ninth seed Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals.
It will cap a remarkable rise for the British number one, who was 153rd in the world four years ago, following her first WTA title win, over Venus Williams, at the Bank of West Stanford Classic last week.
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Pliskova only put in 53 per cent of her first serves, and Halep punished her accordingly, winning 68 per cent of points returning the second.
