Simona Halep continued to look like the player to beat in the women’s draw at Roland Garros as she cruised past Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-1, while 2nd-seeded Karolina Pliskova overcame Veronica Cepede Royg 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

It was one-way traffic as Halep pushed ahead early in her match and she maintained the lead throughout the one-hour match. She attacked the Spaniard’s serve breaking on six of her seven opportunities and controlled play. It was her first win against Suarez Navarro in six attempts on the clay surface.

Much has been attributed to coach Darren Cahill regarding Halep’s play of late. It is well documented that Cahill threatened to walk away from his duties as coach unless the Romanian changed her on-court attitude to a more positive one after her negative performance in Miami. She listened, changed, won the Madrid title and now appears to have a golden opportunity to win her first major title.

“I work hard and I changed,” Halep said earlier. “I changed pretty fast. So, I'm okay. Now I'm happy that I can be positive on court, and I will never be negative like I was in Miami because I didn't like when I saw the video, I felt ashamed about what I did. So hopefully it is not going to happen again.”

Halep will face 5th-seeded Elina Svitolina who struggled with a back injury and squeaked by Petra Martic in three sets. Svitolina made a remarkable comeback, rallying from a 2-5 deficit in the final set to advance.

Elsewhere, Pliskova overcame a gritty performance by Cepede Royg on Suzanne-Lenglen Court. After a crisp opening set by Cepede Royg, Pliskova settled things down in the second set. But Cepede Royg used her quickness and net skills to regain momentum. But it was Pliskova taking the key points in the third set to find the service she would need to seal the match despite the strong push by the Paraguayan.

Pliskova can elevate to world no.1 if she wins the title in Paris but will need to advance past Caroline Garcia in the quarterfinals to take another step towards that goal. Garcia defeated fellow Frenchwoman Alize Garcia to advance to the final 8.