Simona Halep started her grass court season superbly with a dominant 6-2 6-0 win over Hsieh Su-Wei at the Nature Valley International.
The Romanian, 27, has had a good year without setting the world alight. She reached finals in Doha and Madrid and was beaten by Karolina Pliskova in the semi-final in Miami, but she is yet to win a title in 2019.
Halep has also not played since her surprise loss to Amanda Anisimova in the French Open quarter-final, but that did not seem to affect her today.
The World No.7 looked sharp from the beginning against Hsieh. She broke in the third game and then held to love to cement her advantage. She tightened her grip by breaking again and soon closed out the set 6-2.
Although there were plenty of long rallies in the second set, Halep looked in total control throughout as she won both the one-sided games and the close games to take it 6-0 in 27 minutes.
The Romanian will now play Polona Hercog in the last 16. The Slovenian beat Pauline Parmentier 2-6 6-2 7-6(4) to secure her passage.
Ostapenko knocks out Stephens
Jelena Ostapenko sustained her recent resurgence with an encouraging 1-6 6-0 6-3 win over Sloane Stephens.
The Latvian, 22, has struggled for form in the last 11 months due to a left wrist injury. But she found some rhythm in Birmingham and she has seemingly brought that form with her to Eastbourne.
It was a strange match against Stephens. Ostapenko made a raft of errors and did not manage to hold serve at all during the first set.
Then she pulled herself together and hit a stream of winners in the second set. At the other end, the American looked lost as the ball went past her again and again. Stephens also made several errors and the Latvian took the set 6-0 in just 28 minutes.
The third set looked to be heading down a similar route. Ostapenko continued hitting eye-catching winners and the World No.9 carried on making costly errors. Consequently, the score rolled on to 5-1 in the Latvian’s favour.
It is clear that grass does not suit Stephens at all, but she gave herself a slim chance of getting back into the match by winning two games in a row.
Ostapenko had other ideas. She hit three superb forehand winners to earn herself two match points. Stephens managed to save both, but the Latvian soon got another opportunity and she hustled the American into an error to seal victory.
The 2017 French Open champion’s next opponent will be Ekaterina Alexandrova. The Russian outlasted the clearly-exhausted Belinda Bencic 6-7(6) 6-2 6-3.
Kerber and Sabalenka advance
Angelique Kerber’s record on grass in the last six years has been exemplary, and her excellence on the surface looks set to continue this year.
The German, who reached the semi-final in Mallorca last week, eased to a 6-4 6-4 victory over Sam Stosur to book her place in the last 16 in Eastbourne for the sixth time.
“It’s nice to be back here, and this was another good match on grass before Wimbledon,” Kerber said. “I like to play on grass, so I’m trying to enjoy every match and every moment right now.”
2018 finalists Caroline Wozniacki and Aryna Sabalenka also advanced to the last 16. The Dane defeated Andrea Petkovic 6-4 6-4, while the Belarussian comfortably beat Tamara Zidansek 6-2 6-3.
