Romanian third seed Simona Halep has moved smoothly into the French Open second round with a 6-2 6-3 win over Slovakia’s Jana Cepelova, showing no ill effects from the ankle ligament she tore less than two weeks ago.
Having come close to pulling out of the tournament due the injury, sustained in a losing cause in the Italian Open final, the Romanian faced a potentially tricky first-round outing against a player she lost to the last time they met, at Wimbledon in 2015.
But tapping into the rich vein of form on clay that also took her to the Madrid Open title in mid-May, Halep’s groundstrokes were too fast and too accurate for Cepelova on Tuesday, who made 23 forced and 29 unforced errors.
“Today was a great day for me. I really played well,” she said courtside. Halep faces Germany’s Tatjana Maria in the second round.
Britain’s world No.8 Johanna Konta insists she is happy with the progress she has made through the clay season despite crashing out in the first round.
The seventh seed appeared to have a kind draw against world No.109 Hsieh Su-wei as she sought her first main-draw win at Roland Garros.
Konta raced through the first set but then got bogged down in a battle and became thoroughly frustrated as Taiwan’s Hsieh ground out a 1-6 7-6 (2) 6-4 victory.
“My expectations are never results-orientated,” she said.
“Whether I’ve lost first round or third round or quarters, I do my best to not judge myself on that aspect.
“I do feel I’m a better player at the end of these last few weeks on the surface than I was at the beginning and that is the most I can ask of myself: to keep improving.”
Konta’s elimination was the major women’s upset on Tuesday at Roland Garros. Elsewhere, fellow seeds Barbora Strycova, Carla Suarez-Navarro and Caroline Garcia defeated Alison Riske (6-3 6-0), Maria Sakkari (6-4 6-2) and Nao Hibino (6-2 6-2) respectively. Anastasija Sevastova and Daria Kasatkina also booked their spots in the second round.
Fifth seed Elina Svitolina proved too strong for Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4 6-3, while Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova made light work of Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-0 6-4.
