MELBOURNE, Australia -- Second-seeded Simona Halep breezed into the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Australian wild-card entry Lizette Cabrera.
Halep struggled with a lower back issue in a straight-sets loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova in a warm-up tournament last week, but didn’t appear to be hampered in her win over Cabrera.
The 2018 Australian Open finalist broke Cabrera’s serve six times and hit 14 winners to 18 unforced errors to win in just under an hour.
Halep plays another Australian in the second round, Ajla Tomljanovic, who was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Misaki Doi.