Bright starts by Dominic Thiem, Halep

Washington: Top seeds Dominic Thiem and Simona Halep cruised into the round of 16 at the ATP and WTA Citi Open with straight-set triumphs Tuesday at the US Open tune-up event. Austria’s seventh-ranked Thiem, a French Open semi-finalist in June, waited out a rain delay then needed only 63 minutes to dispatch 96th-ranked Swiss Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-3.

“It wasn’t easy but I’m pretty happy with my performance,” Thiem said. “It was my first match on hardcourt since Miami (in March) and that’s always a little tricky.” World number two Halep, this year’s French Open runner-up, took only 79 minutes to oust US wildcard Sloane Stephens 7-6 (7/3), 6-0.

“It was a tough first set. I was missing a little bit too much and she made some shots,” Halep said. “Didn’t have the rhythm at the beginning, but I feel better now.”

Thiem, who dropped only eight points on his serve and just one on 25 successful first serves, broke in the second game of the match and again in his rival’s last two service games, taking the match when Laaksonen netted a backhand.

“I don’t have a lack of confidence but it’s always nice to get that first win,” Thiem said. This marks the biggest event where Thiem has been top seeded, but his four nearest rankings rivals are also in the field — Germany’s Alexander Zverev, Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Canada’s Milos Raonic and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Nishikori downs fighting Young 
Second-seeded Nishikori turned back the determined challenge of American Donald Young 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5). Nishikori, seeking his first title of 2017, didn’t face a break point in the third set, but he couldn’t convert any of his eight break chances as Young forced the tiebreaker.

Nishikori finally sealed the win on his sixth match point after two hours and 25 minutes and with the clock ticking toward 2 am. Halep will next face Colombia’s 115th-ranked Mariana Duque-Marino for a quarter-final berth as the 25-year-old Romanian keeps her focus on building her game for the US Open that starts on August 28 in New York.

“For first match on hardcourts, it wasn’t that bad,” Halep said. “My serve wasn’t the best but I was OK. Everything went well. I can’t say I have to adjust something.

Kvitova set for long haul 
Los Angeles: Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is relishing the prospect of a jam-packed North American schedule, starting this week in Stanford, California.

The Czech was sidelined for six months after a knife-wielding burglar at her home left her with severe left hand injuries that threatened her career.

She returned in May at the French Open, losing in the second round. After a tournament win in Birmingham, she fell in the second-round at Wimbledon as well, where she had to call for medical assistance in her three-set loss to Madison Brengle.

She has booked herself for five tournaments in North America. Seeded second, Kvitova enjoyed a first-round bye and will kick off her ambitious August against Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Italian Francesca Schiavone.

In other first-round matches on Tuesday, sixth-seeded American CoCo Vandeweghe advanced when Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic, who entered the tournament nursing a shoulder injury, retired after losing the first set 6-2. Eighth-seeded American CiCi Bellis breezed past France’s Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-2.