Konta demonstrated her improving form on the red dirt in a convincing win
Wednesday 16 May 2018 16:11, UK
British No 1 Johanna Konta found a straightforward path into the Italian Open third round, dropping just four games against Su-Wei Hsieh.
Konta easily won 6-0 6-4 on Wednesday afternoon to advance into the last 16.
Su-Wei Hsieh, from Taiwan, had shockingly eliminated Konta in the first round of last year's French Open but could not repeat the feat.
Konta, the world No 22, whitewashed the first set in 19 minutes for the loss of just six points. The 26-year-old found herself in a more competitive second set and Hsieh recovered from 5-2 to 5-4 before Konta clinched victory on her fifth match point.
In the next round Konta will face reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
Simona Halep, the world No 1, progressed even more easily into the next round. She beat Naomi Osaka 6-0 6-1 in less than an hour.
The Romanian will next play 13th-seeded American Madison Keys, who battled past Croatian Donna Vekic 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-0) for a place in the quarter-finals.
France's Caroline Garcia, a semi-finalist in Madrid last week, also eased into the third round past Hungary's Timea Babos 6-3 6-4.
Garcia, the seventh seed, went through with a break in both sets and she will next play US Open champion Sloane Stephens after she beat Kaia Kanepi 6-0 5-7 6-4.
Greece's Maria Sakkari scored her first top five win of her career as she upset former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova 3-6 6-3 7-5 with the sixth seeded Czech smashing the umpire's chair in frustration with her racket late in the deciding set.
Sakkari will face the winner of the second-round match between 11th seed Angelique Kerber of Germany and Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu.
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