Intro:

Top seed Simona Halep eased into the third round of the the Dubai Tennis Championships with a comprehensive 6-2, 6-0 victory over Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova. After suffering a scare in the first set, second seed Petra Kvitova defeated Elina Svitolina 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

Script:

Romania's Simona Halep cruised to a straight sets victory over Daniela Hantuchova on Tuesday to book her place in round three of the Dubai Tennis Championships and after some close points in the second game, it looked like it could be a close match.

Despite some promising early play from the Pattaya City champion, Halep thwarted Hantuchova's efforts to see out the first set 6-2.

Things got even easier in the second set, and the top seed managed to win nine games without reply to close out the set 6-0.

Halep will face Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria in her next match.

World number three Petra Kvitova fought back from a set down against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina to progress to round three as well.

Having previously defeated Kvitova at the 2014 Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Svitolina stormed into the lead taking the first set by six games to two.

Kvitova fought back in the second to force the game to three sets.

She then went on to take the match by wrong-footing Svitolina with a forehand return along the sideline.

Kvitova will now face Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in round three.