Halep blows away British qualifier Dart

[January 23, 2020]    MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Romanian fourth seed Simona Halep powered into the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday, defeating British qualifier Harriet Dart 6-2 6-4 in only 77 minutes.

Romania's Simona Halep celebrates winning the match against Britain's Harriet Dart. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Windy conditions on Rod Laver Arena saw the pair trading breaks of serve at the start of the match before Halep steadied the ship, winning four games in a row before serving out the set.

The two-times Grand Slam champion wavered slightly as she failed to serve out the match while 5-2 up in the final set, but she completed the job at the second time of asking to set up a meeting with either 26th seed American Danielle Collins or Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva.

Despite the loss, Dart's performance was a marked improvement on her appearance at last year's Open, when she was beaten by Maria Sharapova in the opening round without winning a single game.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by David Goodman)

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