Halep beats Osaka, advances to Italian Open 3rd round

Rome:  Romania’s Simona Halep on Wednesday defeated Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the third round of the Italian Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament.
It took the World No. 1 just 59 minutes to beat Osaka, World No. 21, moving one step closer to winning her first Italian Open title, after finishing runner-up in 2017, reports Efe.
Halep, 26, fired 15 winners compared to Osaka’s 10, and has won four out of five career matches against the Japanese player.
In the upcoming round, Halep is set to take on either the United States’ Madison Keys or Croatia’s Donna Vekic, who knocked out Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro in the tournament’s first round on Monday.(IANS)