Halep breezes into round four with victory over Kasatkina

Simona Halep showed her fighting spirit on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Saturday as she strengthened her status as French Open favourite with a 6-0 7-5 win over Daria Kasatkina.

Halep was not troubled by her Russian opponent or her ankle ligament problem in the opening set in Paris, but needed to step things up in the second as Kasatkina rallied.

Any concerns about Halep’s movement because of the injury sustained in the run-up to the tournament have been dismissed in the opening rounds at Roland Garros, the third seed yet to drop a set.

Her latest outing showed her athleticism is back to its best as she regularly chased down loose groundstrokes from Kasatkina, before unleashing her pinpoint returns.

Not much went Kasatkina’s way in the first set as Halep raced through it in 34 minutes, the Russian only producing five winners to her opponent’s 13.

Halep saved a break point in her first service game but was not worried in those that followed as she converted her second set point to move ahead.

Kasatkina took herself off court after being bagelled and on her return she was finally able to get on the board – her pep talk clearly doing the job.

She continued to make progress and reeled off four successive games to move within sight of levelling the match, but when presented with four set points she let them all slip away.

Halep’s battling qualities were superb as she never gave Kasatkina an easy point and having saved those break points she found another gear to close out the match.

.@Simona_Halep slides through to the R16 for a 3rd time with 6-0 7-5 win over Kasatkina. Up next: Suarez Navarro.#RG17 pic.twitter.com/CfTd2odMhQ

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 3, 2017

STATISTICAL BREAKDOWN

Halep [3] bt Kasatkina [26] 6-0 7-5

WINNERS/UNFORCED ERRORS
Halep – 25/13
Kasatkina – 16/24

ACES/DOUBLE FAULTS
Halep – 2/0
Kasatkina – 0/5

BREAK POINTS WON
Halep – 6/11
Kasatkina – 2/8

FIRST SERVE PERCENTAGE
Halep – 70
Kasatkina – 67

PERCENTAGE OF POINTS WON ON FIRST/SECOND SERVE
Halep – 60/65
Kasatkina – 42/41

TOTAL POINTS
Halep – 74
Kasatkina – 50