Rome, Italy (SportsNetwork.com) - No. 2 seed Simona Halep was an easy second-round winner Wednesday at the $2.7 million Italian Open.
The 2014 French Open runner-up from Romania drilled American Alison Riske 6-3, 6-0 on the red clay at Foro Italico.
Halep has already played 32 matches this season, capturing titles in Shenzhen, Dubai and Indian Wells, and perhaps unsurprisingly is battling some minor physical problems.
"I feel good," Halep said. "I can run, I can play, I can do everything. I will have the chance to win a Grand Slam but it's still very far so I want to try to take match by match and see if that is going to happen."
Sixth-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Genie Bouchard of Canada handled Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas 6-3, 6-4, while an upset came when Russian Daria Gavrilova outlasted seventh-seeded former No. 1 and former French Open champ Ana Ivanovic 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (9-7).
Eighth-seeded Russian left-hander Ekaterina Makarova overcame France's Kristina Mladenovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
More second-round upsets occurred when American Christina McHale stunned 13th- seeded former Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani 6-4, 6-4 and Serb Bojana Jovanovski knocked out 15th-seeded American Madison Keys 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Errani was last year's Italian Open runner-up to Serena Williams.
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