Halep Needs Less Than an Hour to Advance to French Open Fourth Round

October 2, 2020 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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Photo Credit: Brian Coleman

 

Two tournament favorites faced no issues in reaching the French Open Round of 16 on Friday as top-seeded Simona Halep and third-seeded Dominic Thiem won their respective third-round matches in Paris in straight sets.

Thiem defeated Norway’s Casper Ruud, a man who had the most wins on clay this year, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. The U.S. Open champion blasted 32 winners and saved seven break points to advance in two hours and 15 minutes.

He moves on to play the winner of former champion Stan Wawrinka and France’s Hugo Gaston.

Halep, the 2018 champion at Roland Garros, avenged a defeat to Amanda Anisimova in last year’s tournament by breezing past the young American 6-0, 6-1 in just 54 minutes.

The Romanian committed just seven unforced errors and dominated the matchup from start to finish.

“I think I played a really good match,” said Halep. “I was very aggressive and I knew from last year I had to change something and I did that today.”

Halep will take on Polish teenager Iga Swiatek next. Swiatek took out Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-2 in her match on Friday.

 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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