Third-seeded Simona Halep continued her strong start to the year with a 6-, 6-2 first-round win over Karin Knapp of Italy at the Australian Open on Monday.
After an early exchange of service breaks, Halep clinched the first set by breaking Knapp’s serve. She clinched the match by also breaking Knapp’s serve.
The 23-year-old Romanian moved steadily up in the rankings last year, rising as high as No. 2, after winning two titles and making it to the final of the French Open, where she lost to Maria Sharapova.
Grigor Dimitrov wins opening match
Tenth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov defeated Germany’s Dustin Brown 6-2, 6-3, 6 2 in a 69-minute first-round match Monday at the Australian Open.
Playing on the second show court at Melbourne Park on a sunny but cool opening day, Dimitrov had little difficulty advancing to the second round and a match against either Lukas Lacko of Slovakia or Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.
Dimitrov, nicknamed “Baby Fed” because of the similarity of his game to Roger Federer’s, won titles on three surfaces last year and reached his first major semifinal at Wimbledon, where he beat 2013 champion Andy Murray in the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
Last year at Melbourne Park, Dimtrov reached the quarterfinals before losing to Rafael Nadal.
