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Fifth seed Simona Halep narrowly avoided a third-round upset with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 win over Hungary's Timea Babos on Saturday to keep her US Open title hopes alive.
Halep came into the match having dropped nine games in her opening two matches and looked ready to make speedy work of Babos but she needed two hours and eight minutes on an overcast Arthur Ashe Stadium court to secure her place in the last 16.
After blitzing the opening set in 24 minutes, Halep meekly surrendered the second to the 34th-ranked Babos, who had been knocked out in the opening round in four previous visits to Flushing Meadows.
Babos continued to apply the pressure in the third, breaking Halep at the first opportunity, but the fiery Romanian battled back, angrily smashing her racket on to the court before holding serve for a 5-4 lead.
Halep was gifted her place in the fourth round when Babos double-faulted to hand her the break and match.
Next up for Halep is 11th-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro who advanced with a tidy 6-4 6-3 win over Russian Elena Vesnina.
Radwanska rolls into fourth round
Agnieszka Radwanska registered an unusually comfortable third-round win over France's Caroline Garcia at the US Open on Saturday, but the Polish fourth seed hungers for more at Flushing Meadows.
Radwanska, who had been extended to three sets in three of her four matches against 25th seed Garcia, romped into the round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in breezy conditions at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
It will be the 27-year-old Radwanska's fifth trip to the fourth round at the US Open but she has failed to advance beyond that stage in New York, unlike the other grand slams.
Radwanska, who won her 19th career WTA title last week in the New Haven warm-up event for the Open, gave herself a high grade for her display against the 33rd-ranked Garcia.
The steady baseline player was near perfect with her groundstrokes, registering only five unforced errors, as she pressed Garcia into 34 errors and broke the big-serving Frenchwoman six times.
