Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Ons Jabeur were among the players to book their spots in the third round of the French Open during Friday's action at Roland-Garros.
Fresh from a 6-4 6-0 win over Cristina Bucsa in the first round, Swiatek - who turned 22 on Wednesday - celebrated her birthday with an identical success over Claire Liu of the USA.
The defending champion took just 89 minutes to storm to a spot in the third round, although she was made to work for her first-set advantage, earning the double break before Liu miraculously recovered to get the contest back on serve.
The American's resistance soon waned, though, as Swiatek won eight of the final nine games of the match to seal an expected straight-sets triumph, albeit while having to beat away four break points in the second set.
"I was able to play a little bit better in the second set, and I kind of used first set to get more information and get into the rhythm, but Claire played pretty well," Swiatek said on the court after her 30th tour-level win of 2023.
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A third-round tie with China's Wang Xinyu now awaits Swiatek, while Rybakina also made it back-to-back straight set wins by downing the Czech Republic's Linda Noskova.
Rybakina, who won the Italian Open last month, prevailed 6-3 6-3 in one hour and 26 minutes against the 18-year-old as she stretched her winning streak to eight matches in all tournaments.
Noskova saved no fewer than five set points on serve in the opener, but Rybakina eventually got over the line courtesy of a pair of double faults from the teenager, who did not let that collapse affect her early in the second set.
However, after a trio of holds for both players, Noskova missed three chances to break Rybakina in the seventh game, and the Wimbledon champion responded with an immediate break of her own before converting her fourth match point.
Later in the day, Jabeur continued her own stroll into the third round by overcoming France's Oceane Dodin 6-2 6-3, needing just one hour and 11 minutes to get the job done.
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Hitting six aces compared to just the one for Dodin, Jabeur took five of the 12 break points she fashioned to keep her hopes of a first-ever Grand Slam crown alive.
Elsewhere, Russian 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva demolished Diane Parry 6-1, 6-2 to become the youngest player to reach the third round at Roland-Garros since a 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva in 2005, while Coco Gauff eased past Julia Grabher 6-2 6-3.
In the men's singles event there were victories for Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz, the latter of whom came from a set down to overcome Arthur Rinderknech.
Holger Rune also progressed by virtue of a walkover win over Gael Monfils, but eighth seed Jannik Sinner lost a five-set thriller with Daniel Altmaier.
Ben Knapton
