Simona Halep is through to the second round of the AEGON Classic after a straight sets win over the British No.3 Naomi Broady 6-4 6-2.

Broady came into the the match against the World No.3 full of confidence after a surprise win over Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in round one and held her own in the early proceedings against a far more decorated opponent, holding fairly easily on each of the first four occasions. Halep finally got the breakthrough at 4-4, serving out the set but not before saving her first break point of the match.

Class begin to tell as time went on with Halep breaking another three times in a row to make it 4-1 as the match begin to get away from Broady. She did at least save 2 match points at 5-1 to ensure the scoreline didn’t reflect too unfairly in her favour but that would be it as Halep closed out the match with a hold from 0-30.

Broady’s big serve did trouble Halep at times but the second serve was punished by an elite returner like Halep, especially in the second where she did not win a single point on the ten second serves she hit.

In round two, Halep will play the winner of Klara Koukalova and Carolina Garcia. Meanwhile, Kristina Mladenovic, Timea Babos and Marina Erakovic were winners in the afternoon with wins over Alison Riske, Roberta Vinci and Petra Cetkovska respectively.