Story so far: Halep crushes Anisimova, Thiem blasts into week two

The 29-year-old Romanian committed just seven unforced errors throughout the match and broke her opponent's serve six times.

"I think I played a really good match. I was very aggressive. I knew from last year I had to change something, so I really wanted to be better than last year and definitely I was today," said the world No.2.

"I'm really happy I could win today, it's a gift for Darren, because it's his birthday today, so Happy Birthday, Darren.

"It's nice to win matches here at Roland-Garros and I'm really enjoying my time."

Halep, the 2018 champion in Paris, takes on another familiar face from her campaign last year - Polish teenager Iga Swiatek, whom she beat in the fourth round here in 2019.

No stopping Dominic

Earlier on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Dominic Thiem extended his winning streak to 10 consecutive matches thanks to a 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 drubbing of Norwegian Casper Ruud in the Roland-Garros 2020 third round.

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The No.3 seed showed his class in the two-hour 15-minute victory and now awaits the winner of the clash between 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka and Hugo Gaston.

"I'm very happy. It was a great match, I didn't do any mistakes. Casper is a really great player, very attractive to play, I think there were many good rallies, it was a good match from both of us," said the US Open champion.

"The conditions are very nice to play under the roof, no wind, so the court is perfect and everything is prepared for great matches like that.

Thiem, a finalist in Paris in 2018 and 2019, is through to the fourth round at Roland-Garros for a fifth straight year. He was up against a player who has won more tour-level clay-court matches than anyone else this year.

"I think he has a lot of confidence, he played Rome semis, Hamburg semis, one of the best clay-court players this year. He had a very good attitude from the beginning to the end of the match so I was trying not to give him any chances also in the third set, and I was doing that great," Thiem said of Ruud.

Elina digs deep

Elina Svitolina put together a clinical performance to shake off a stiff challenge from Russian No.27 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and advance to the last 16 for the fourth time in her last six appearances at Roland-Garros.

The No.3 seed - Svitolina's highest seeding at a major - needed one hour and 40 minutes to complete a 6-4, 7-5 victory and will take on Elise Mertens or Caroline Garcia in the fourth round.

"It was not an easy match. Going into the match I knew she would strike the ball really hard and flat, so I had to really adjust quickly with my feet. It was very important just to stay focused for every single point, try to dig deep and run for every single ball," said Svitolina.

"It's a little bit different this year, to be fair, without the big crowd, almost no people, so you really have to treasure every single match, every single slam that you play, so that's why it's really special for me to be back in the second week and I'll try to go even further this year."

Svitolina is a two-time Roland-Garros quarter-finalist and is now 18-7 win-loss on Parisian clay.

Impressive Iga

Swiatek returned to the fourth round at Roland-Garros for a second straight year with a commanding 6-3, 6-2 success over Canadian wild card Eugenie Bouchard.

Swiatek, a junior doubles champion in Paris in 2018, has dropped just 13 games through her first three matches this fortnight.

Nadia's streak continues

Over on Court 14, Argentinian qualifier Nadia Podoroska claimed an 11th consecutive victory (including ITFs and qualifying) by eliminating the conqueror of Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-3, 6-2.

The 23-year-old Podoroska, making her Roland-Garros debut and playing just her second Grand Slam main draw, has now won 20 matches on clay since the tour restarted early August and is the first woman from Argentina to reach the fourth round in Paris since Gisela Dulko in 2011.