Halep hurries into French Open quarters
PARIS: Simona Halep established her credentials to become the newest French Open champion with a blistering 6-1, 6-1 victory over Carla Suarez-Navarro to reach the quarterfinals on Monday.
With no former champions left in the field, pregnant Serena Williams watching from the sidelines and Maria Sharapova not invited to compete, third seed Halep has a golden opportunity to break into the grand slam winners’ circle. Monday’s evidence suggested the Romanian may be ready for it.
“I was expecting a tough game against a very good claycourt player,” Halep said. “But I managed to push her back. “I played a good game.” There could be no arguments from any observers or from Suarez Navarro who appeared stunned at the outcome.
Before this clash, there had been little to suggest it would be so one-sided. Halep led their head-to-head record, but only by 6-5.
As soon as the match began, however, its complexion became quickly apparent. Halep settled faster and raced into a 5-0 lead before Suarez Navarro could register on the scoreboard.
The Spaniard finally held her serve for 5-1 when Halep made a rare forehand error to end a 15-stroke rally, but the Romanian put that blip behind her to seal the set with a backhand pass a game later.
SVITOLINA ADVANCES
Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina dug deep to produce her best tennis in adversity, beating Croatian qualifier Petra Martic 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Monday to book a quarterfinal spot. Martic, ranked 290th in the world after a 10-month injury layoff last year, was two points from victory at 5-2, 30-0 on her opponent’s serve, but Svitolina unleashed a barrage of winners to claim 20 of the last 26 points.
“I decided to give everything I had and stay strong mentally. I hope I will recover from my injury,” said the fifth seed, who received on-court treatment on her lower back at the beginning of the decider.
BOPANNA WINS
PARIS: Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski stormed into the semifinals of the mixed doubles event with a straight-set upset win over the duo of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig of Croatia.
The Bopanna-Dabrowski pair, seeded seventh, defeated the second-seeded Sania-Dodig pair 6-3, 6-4 in the 52-minute quarterfinals contest that involved two Indians.
Bopanna is the only Indian left in the fray in the Grand Slam tournament. He is though already out of the men’s doubles event.