Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep and Johanna Konta in cruise control
Top seed Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep and Johanna Konta all booked their places in the third round of the Qatar Open on Wednesday.
Australian Open champion Wozniacki made light work of Carina Witthoeft as she beat the German 6-2, 6-0.
The Dane, who struck 18 winners, will take on either 14th seed Magdalena Rybarikova or Monica Niculescu in the next round.
Second seed Halep also had an easy encounter as she brushed aside Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-0 despite still suffering from the ankle injury she picked up in Melbourne last month.
She will face Anastasija Sevastova in the third round.
“Ankle is okay. The foot is still painful,” the Romanian said.
She added: “I will try to finish the match. I started already to talk too much about this injury, it’s just a problem with my foot.”
British No 1 Konta beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-2 to set up a clash against two-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber, who beat Sam Stosur.
“I’m feeling good so far, I’ve had two straight-set matches,” she told 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.”
However, sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko crashed out as she suffered a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Mihaela Buzarnescu while Madison Keys went down 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 against Cici Bellis.
Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova beat Agnieszka Radwanska and Karolina Pliskova was too good for Alize Cornet.
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