By Chris Oddo | Tuesday, June 16, 2015

 

Simona Halep opened her grass-court campaign with a straight-sets win over Great Britain's Naomi Broady.

Photo Source: Jan Kruger/Getty.

Simona Halep fought off a fast start from British wild card Naomi Broady and eventually pulled away for a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory in her first grass-court match of 2015.

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The world No. 208 kept pace with top-seeded Halep through much of the first set, riding her big serve and aggressive ground strokes to four consecutive holds, but Halep broke through in the ninth game as part of a six-game run that put the match out of touch.

Broady, who owns three tour-level victories which have all come on grass in England, would break to end the streak and close to within 3-1 in the second set, but Halep didn’t let her get any closer from there. The Romanian closed the match when Broady missed a backhand at the one hour and 11-minute mark.

"The first set was really tough, and I can say I was a little bit lucky to get the break in the end, but overall I'm happy how I did and that I could win this match today,” Halep said afterwards, according to WTATennis.com.

The Romanian could face France’s Caroline Garcia in the third round. 16th-seeded Garcia took out qualifier Tatjana Maria, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(6).

12th-seeded Victoria Azarenka was also a winner on Tuesday. She won her 18th match of the season, 7-6(7), 6-4, over American Varvara Lepchenko.

Other winners on a busy Tuesday at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham were 10th-seeded Barbora Strycova (d. Niculescu), 13th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Knapp) and Kristina Mladenovic (d. Riske).