Update – Roland Garros: Simona Halep, Irina Begu qualify to third round, Sorana Cirstea – out

Former World No.1 Simona Halep won a ninth straight match at the French Open on Thursday, surviving Magda Linette, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the third round.

The defending champion had been pushed to three sets to start her 2019 campaign against Ajla Tomljanovic earlier in the week, and overcame a mid-match hiccup – after holding three match points – to advance once more after two hours and 11 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, wtatennis.com informs.

“This match was different, because I was up and I had match points,” Halep explained after the match. “So I had the confidence to win the match. I knew that I’m able to win it. So in the third set, I said that I have to stay calm, to still playing what I played also, both sets, doesn’t matter – didn’t matter that I lost the second one.

“I just tried to open the court more, because from closer to the body, she played really, really good. I tried also to play with the first serve more. I think mentally I was stronger and I could win this match.”

“I didn’t know what to expect, because I never played against her and I didn’t know how the ball would come,” Halep said. “For sure, she played a great match today. The level was really high.

“I just want to congratulate her, because she fought until the end. I think it’s a big thing and for her confidence it’s going to be good for the future tournaments.”

Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (28, 116th WTA) qualified on Thursday to the third round of Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament, after defeating Karolina Muchova (Czech Republic) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Begu came from behind, after a very poor game in the first set, to win in one hour and 56 minutes.

Earlier in the day, Sorana Cirstea, 28, 84^th WTA, was defeated by Aliona Bolsova (Spain) 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in one hour and 38 minutes.

Semi-finalist on Nurnberg last week, Cirstea will collect 70 WTA points and EUR 87,000.