PARIS, June 2 (Xinhua) -- World number one Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep secured their berths in singles last 16 through straight sets at the 2018 French Open here on Saturday.
Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, two headline women players at Roland Garros, set up their highly-anticipated contention in the fourth round.
Ten-time winner Nadal swept home favorite Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, extending his winning streak in head-to-head to 16 matches.
Nadal stormed to a 5-0 lead at the start, while conceding three consecutive games to 27th-seeded Gasquet due to unforced errors.
Nadal held his serves in the ninth game, and never seemed contested in the following two sets.
The Spaniard set up a round-of-16 clash with unseeded German Maximilian Marterer, who previously knocked out Canadian promising star Denis Shapovalov in the second round.
"I saw him play the other day against Shapovalov. He's a player with a good potential. He has a good serve and forehand, and hits the ball with big topspin," commented Nadal.
Halep, in chase of her maiden Grand Slam title, held off challenge from Germany's Andrea Petkovic to take away the first set 7-5.
Petkovic injured her right knee when returning a ball in the opening game of the second set. She returned to court after a medial timeout, while failing to move well due to heavy bandage on her knee. The women's top seed marched on after triumphing the set 6-0.
Sharapova, absent from the tournament during the past two years, overshadowed No. 6 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-1.
23-time Grand Slam winner Williams withstood 11 aces from Germany's Julia Goerges to win the duel 6-3, 6-4.
"Any time you play against Serena, you know what you're up against. Despite the record that I have against her, I always look forward to coming out on the court and competing against the best player," said Sharapova.
"We are both on a comeback for two totally different reasons. She's been on her journey for over a year and I just started mine a couple of months ago.
"It's just something new and different," Williams pointed out.
Women's third seed Garbine Muguruza conceded only two games to outclass Australian Samantha Stosur, while eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova fell short against Anett Kontaveit following two tiebreaks.
Caroline Garcia, Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens also kept themselves alive at the tournament.
Men's seeded players joining Nadal in last 16 are Marin Cilic, Juan Martin Del Potro, Diego Schwartzman, Kevin Anderson, John Isner and Fabio Fognini.
China's Xu Yifan moved past the women's doubles second round with Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada as they saw off Kaitlyn Christian and Carina Witthoeft 6-2, 6-2.
Wang Qiang and Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu, however, lost to Andreja Klepac/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-3, 7-5.
Xu also featured in mixed doubles with Austrian Oliver Marach. The duo lost to Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal in the second round.
