Simona Halep eases her way into round two of Washington

Simona Halep played her first match since Wimbledon and she cruised past Cristina Bucsa 6-3 7-5 in Washington.

Halep arrived to North America with high hopes and it started really well for her. Employing her signature attacking playstyle the Romanian was able to keep the rallies short which is when she is at her strongest. Halep quickly took an early break and then added another one for the 6-3 opening set. She dropped only a handful of points on her serve despite not serving that well.

All of that was thanks to her superior ball striking ability which left Bucsa unable to respond properly. The Spaniard offered more fight in the 2nd set as she was able to produce a better effort on her 2nd serve. Halep broke her in the first game of the 2nd set but after that, Bucsa was able to counter Halep and her groundstrokes.

The Romanian hit a bit of a wall in the 2nd set missing a couple of balls and facing a 15-40 at 3-2 but she was able to hold her serve for the 4-2 lead. After saving those break points Halep put some more pressure on Bucsa and the Spaniard faltered dropping her serve once more giving Halep the 5-2 lead. Things got interesting after that because Halep did not finish out the match but rather dropped her serve.

She did not close it out at 5-4 either with Bucsa winning three games in a row and two on Halep's serve. The Romanian felt the heat and quickly balanced herself to break Bucsa once more for the 6-5 lead closing it out with 7-5. Some complications towards the end but she got it done.