Romania's Halep glides into Australian Open women's singles third round

Romanian player Simona Halep, world number three, progressed to the women's singles third round at the Australian Open tennis tournament, the first Grand Slam of the year, after easily defeating british player Harriet Dart 6-2 6-4 on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Halep, 28, dominated the match with qualifier Dart, 23, world number 173, winning in an hour and 17 minutes. A 2018 Australian Open finalist, Halep has won 180,000 Australian dollars and 130 WTA singles points for her performance so far. Her next opponent will be the winner between 26th-seeded American Danielle Collins and Kazakh Yulia Putintseva. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Tenea, editor: Mihai Dragomir; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)