Halep eases into Madrid third round

Madrid - World number seven Simona Halep thrashed Karin Knapp 6-1, 6-1 to reach the third round of the Madrid Open on Tuesday.

The Romanian needed just over an hour to dispose of the world number 75 to set up a clash with 10th seed Timea Bacsinszky or Ekaterina Makarova in the last 16 on Wednesday.

Halep is one of just five seeds left in the draw after 11th Lucie Safarova pulled out of her second round match with Australian Sam Stosur due to illness.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also reached round three without hitting a ball as Camila Giorgi withdrew.

A resurgent Rafael Nadal begins his quest to win a fifth title in Madrid later on Tuesday when he faces Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.

Defending champion Andy Murray is also in action against Czech veteran Radek Stepanek.