Svitolina lays down French Open marker in Rome

Elina Svitolina underlined her status as a top favourite for the French Open by sweeping Simona Halep aside 6-0, 6-4 to successfully defend her Italian Open crown today.

In a repeat of last year's final at the Foro Italico, Ukrainian Svitolina, seeded fourth, was up against Halep a day after the Romanian top seed had ousted Russian Maria Sharapova.

But Halep's hopes of overturning last year's defeat to her 23-year-old opponent quickly evaporated in a completely one-sided encounter that saw the Romanian fail to produce a real challenge.

Svitolina, the world number four, has now successfully defended three career titles, in Baku, Dubai and also Rome; she also won in Brisbane and Dubai this season to take her 2018 title total to three.

The win also marked Svitolina's 12th career title on what was her eighth final in succession.

"It's amazing that I could do this here a second time and defend," said Svitolina. "This is something very, very special.

"Congratulations to Simona, she had a great week of tennis."
"Maybe third time is lucky for me."