Svitolina breezes past Li into French Open third round

Svitolina, seeking her maiden Grand Slam title, stormed out of the blocks to break Li's serve in the opening game before dictating play from the baseline to consolidate her lead.

World number six Elina Svitolina wasted little time in advancing to the third round of the French Open with a 6-0 6-4 demolition of American Ann Li on Thursday.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina celebrates after winning her second-round match against Ann Li of the US (REUTERS)

Svitolina, seeking her maiden Grand Slam title, stormed out of the blocks to break Li's serve in the opening game before dictating play from the baseline to consolidate her lead.

World number 75 Li struggled to create opportunities to break the 26-year-old Ukrainian, who won 12 of her 14 first-serve points to claim an opening-set bagel in just 29 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

Li got on the scoreboard early in the second set and opened up a surprise 3-0 lead with a string of blistering forehands.

But Svitolina soon found another gear as she reeled off five straight games to book a place in the third round in an hour and 14 minutes.