HALEP HOT STREAK CONTINUES AT FRENCH OPEN

The French are guaranteed at least one women's quarter-finalist at Roland Garros with Alize Cornet and Caroline Garcia set for a fourth round battle.

Title contender Simona Halep pulled through against young pretender Daria Kasatkina in a French Open round three rollercoaster, winning 6-0 7-5 after at first threatening to dismantle the 20-year-old Russian.

The third-seeded Romanian - a beaten finalist in Paris in 2014 - is being tipped as a title favourite after a stellar run on clay to this year's tournament.

She romped through the first set of Saturday's third round match in 30 minutes, with an ankle injury she sustained in mid-May giving her no more than a single twinge.

"I felt it a little bit at one backhand, because I turned too much...But doesn't bother me much, so I'm not thinking about it. I can run, I can slide," Halep said.

Kasatkina, who in April won her first WTA title in Charleston, initially found the big-game atmosphere on Court Suzanne Lenglen more of a hindrance than a help.

Her groundstrokes tentative and her movements jerky, she fell back on slices and drop shots as her opponent hit powerfully into both corners from the back of the court.

After losing nine of the first 10 games, the 26th-seeded Russian, the highest-ranked teenager in the world before turning 20 in May, sparked into life.

She won the next four games and held three set points in the 10th game, dominating an opponent who had won in Madrid - one of the two main warm-up tournament for Paris - and finished runner-up in the other in Rome.

But Halep edged through 6-0 7-5, closing out the match with a backhand that stuck the net chord and that Kasatkina failed to return.

"I played really well at the beginning," Halep said.

"She was coming back really strongly and I think my energy went a bit down... She's a really tough opponent."

Halep will play Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round.

There will also be at least one Frenchwoman in the final eight, in 2017, with 28th seed Caroline Garcia and Alize Corner set to face off in the round of 16.

They progressed to the fourth round in contrasting styles though.

While Garcia squeaked past unseeded Taiwanese player Su-Wei Hsieh 6-4 4-6 9-7 Cornet delivered a masterclass to shock Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 6-1.

"I think the crowd is going to be excited," Cornet said of the impending encounter.

"We will try to give them a good show, a good game. The crowd support is like a bonus, an extra energy."

In the other half of the draw Caroline Wozniacki finished off American teen Catherine Bellis in their rain-delayed match to win 6-2 2-6 6-3 and book a fourth round showdown with 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.