MELBOURNE: Simona Halep proved too strong for Kazakh Yulia Putintseva in their first career meeting as the Romanian fourth seed sailed through to the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-1 6-4 win yesterday.
Former world number one Halep, who reached the Melbourne Park final in 2018, broke Putintseva’s serve three times in the first set and twice in the second.
In another match, Angelique Kerber beat Italian Camila Giorgi 6-2 6-7(4) 6-3 to set up a clash with Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who sent second seed Karolina Pliskova spinning out of the tournament.
Halep, who held the WTA year-end top ranking in 2017 and 2018, has not lost a set in her first week at Melbourne Park and was aggressive against Putintseva from the outset.
Her hard-hitting baseline play and excellent court coverage were also full on display as she hit 26 winners.
Putintseva, ranked 38th in the world, broke Halep once in each set and surprised her opponent with some well-disguised drop shots, though her last attempt hit the net to end the match.
Frustration
“I knew she’s a very good player with the drop shots,” Halep said. “I got a little bit frustrated because I got them, most of them, but I missed them or I just put the ball back and then she passed me.
“So, yeah, it was a little bit of frustration there. But afterwards, I paid more attention to her shots, so it was much better in the end.”
The women’s draw at the year’s first Grand Slam has seen the exit of its previous three champions in Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka.
Twice Grand Slam champion Halep, 28, will next meet the winner of the third-round match between Belgian No 16 seed Elise Mertens and American Catherine Bellis.
Meanwhile, Pliskova was left counting the cost of a performance well short of her best as she passed up a golden opportunity to push on for a maiden Grand Slam title after losing to Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(4) 7-6(3).
Sixth seed Belinda Bencic followed Pliskova out of the tournament when she was thumped 6-0 6-1 by Anett Kontaveit.
Second seed Pliskova acknowledged that while the Russian had played well her own performance was nowhere near what she is capable of.
“She was playing very well today. Maybe the best what she played against me so far,” Pliskova said.
&uuid=(email))