Romanian tennis player Simona Halep reached the third round of the Western & Southern Open tournament in Cincinnati after beating French Kristina Mladenovic in three sets 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. The match lasted almost three hours.

Mladenovic had beaten Halep in both of their previous meetings, at Paris last year and at Birmingham earlier this year.

"I was up the whole match and just couldn't finish the second set, but I tried to stay focused for every ball, and I think we played a really good match. She was playing some really good tennis today,” Halep said, cited by Wtatennis.com.

Simona Halep will meet German Andrea Petkovic in the tournament’s third round. The Romanian tennis player has the chance to move back up to number two in the next WTA ranking if she makes it to the final. Simona Halep (5,546 points) currently ranks third in the WTA ranking, after American Serena Williams (11,821 points) and Russian Maria Sharapova (6,036 points).

Western & Southern Open will end on August 23. The tournament has total money prizes of USD 2.4 million.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: western % southern open on facebook)