Wednesday 14 February 2018 20:34, UK
Johanna Konta eased into the third round of the Qatar Open with a convincing 6-2 6-2 victory against Carla Suarez Navarro.
The world No 11, who defeated Bernarda Pera in the opening round on Tuesday, maintained her strong start in Doha with an assured display against the experienced Spaniard.
Konta was the dominant force against world No 29 Suarez Navarro and dropped only four games during a straight-sets success, which lasted one hour and 21 minutes.
"I'm feeling good so far, I've had two straight-set matches," Konta said in quotes published on wtatennis.com.
"They weren't easy by any means but court-time wise, it hasn't been super long. I feel like I'm recovering well between the matches and am just looking forward to the next one."
The British No 1 will next face two-time Grand Slam champion and world No 9 Angelique Kerber, who saw off Australia's Sam Stosur 6-4 6-1.
World No 2 and Australian Open runner-up Simona Halep marked her return to competitive tennis with a 6-3 6-0 success against Ekaterina Makarova.
The Romanian, who lost to Caroline Wozniacki in an absorbing final at Melbourne Park last month, has been forced to delay her comeback to the WTA Tour with an ankle injury and Halep admitted she is assessing the problem match-by-match.
"The ankle is okay. The foot is still painful," Halep, who will next face Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova, said.
"I started already to talk too much about this injury, it's just a problem with my foot. The doctor said that nothing can happen like worse to break something.
"But still when I will feel stronger pain, I think I will just think - I will double think about it and I will take the best decision."
Wozniacki, who reached the quarter-finals in St Petersburg last week, hit 18 winners and converted six out of 12 break points to secure a 6-2 6-0 victory against Carina Witthoeft.
The Dane, part of a strong field in the Gulf which contains nine of the top 10 players in the world, will next face Monica Niculescu.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova came back from a set down to prevail against Agnieszka Radwanska 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4.
"I have no idea, first of all, how I turned it around. I felt pretty exhausted," Kvitova said.
We will be covering the ATP ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Rio Open, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and ATP 500 Acapulco in February on www.skysports.com/tennis with news, previews, live blogs, reports and expert analysis.
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