Dubai: Germany’s Angelique Kerber led the march of the seeds into the second round with a smooth 6-2, 6-1 win over Barbora Strycova even as American teenager Catherine CiCi Bellis lived up to her wild card with an equally effortless 6-3, 6-3 win over Belgium’s Elise Mertens on the second day of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open, on Tuesday.
With the top four seeds all receiving a bye into the second round, it was the sixth-seeded Kerber asserting herself to take her all-time record against her Czech opponent to 7-1.
The German, who has been enjoying a solid two past weeks, will now meet Sara Errani after the Italian won a battle of qualifiers against Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-3.
“I think I played a good match. I played a solid match. It’s always tough to play against her. You never know what’s going to happen as she’s such a fighter. But I’m happy to have won the match in two sets,” Kerber said.
“I was trying to play my game. I think it was a little bit different to play in the night than during the day because I was practicing last night [Monday], but it was still a little bit different on court with the lights and everything,” she added.
Fifth seed Caroline Garcia also looked set for a Round Two showdown with Russian Ekaterina Makarova after overcoming a late blip and make her way past Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-5 in Tuesday’s final match.
Earlier, the 18-year-old Bellis booked her place among the big guns with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Belgian Mertens to set a meeting with last week’s Qatar Open runner-up and second seed, Garbine Muguruza in Wednesday’s last match on centre court.
Ranked No.41, Bellis showed maturity far beyind her years as she eased past her 22-year-old opponent. In fact, it was Mertens who started off with an early break.
But a crucial double fault from the Belgian allowed Bellis to draw level at 1-1. Mertens looked subdued and lost as the American teen broke a second time and then held for a 4-1 lead to eventually serve out the set 6-3 in exactly half an hour.
“I’ve never played her before. It’s definitely going to be a new experience for me. It will be fun. She’s an unbelievable player.
She’s been at the top of the game for a while now and it will be great for me just to see where my game lines up against another one of the top players. The idea will be to just try and enjoy it,” Bellis related.
Wednesday will witness the top four seeds in action with third seed Karolina Pliskova up against gutsy Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro at 2 pm followed by the fourth-seeded wild card entrant Jelena Ostapenko – the defending French Open champion – facing Russia’s Elena Vesnina.
Top seed and defending champion Elina Svitolina will be up next against lucky loser Qiang Wang of China, while the evening session from 7 pm will see a second wild card and seventh seed Johanna Konta try to go deeper in this tournament as she takes on Russian Daria Kasatkina.
Results on Day 2 of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open on Tuesday:
(Singles)
Catherine Bellis bt Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-3;
Anett Kontaveit bt Samantha Stosur 1-6, 6-2, 6-4;
Qiang Wang bt Kiki Bertens 6-3,6-0;
Carla Suarez Navarro bt Sofya Zhuk 6-2, 6-2;
Sara Errani vs Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-3;
Angelique Kerber bt Barbora Strycova 6-2, 6-1;
Caroline Garcia bt Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-5
(Doubles)
Nicole Melichar/Kveta Peschke bt Jelena Ostapenko/Anastasija Sevastova 6-2, 6-3;
Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina bt Shuko Aoyama/Katarina Srebotnik 6-1, 6-2;
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/Olga Savchuk bt Alicja Rosolska/Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-0;
Su-Wei Hsieh/Shuai Peng bt Kiki Bertens/Demi Schuurs 6-1, 6-0;
Latisha Chan/Andrea Sestini Hlavackova bt Nadiia Kichenok/Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 6-1.
Order of Play (Wednesday)
Centre Court (Start at 2 pm)
Karolina Pliskova vs Carla Suarez Navarro;
Elena Vesnina vs Jelena Ostapenko;
Elina Svitolina vs Qiang Wang; (Not before 7 pm)
Johanna Konta vs Daria Kasatkina;
Catherine Bellis vs Garbine Muguruza.
Court 1
(Start at 2 pm)
Anett Kontaveit vs Naomi Osaka;
Sara Errani vs Angleique Kerber;
Caroline Garcia vs Ekaterina Makarova;
Su-Wei Hsieh/Shuai Peng vs Nicole Melichar/Kveta Peschke.
Court 3
(Start at 2 pm) Andreja Klepac/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez vs Hao-Ching Chan/Zhaoxuan Yang;
(Not before 6 pm) Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina vs Miyu Kato/Makoto Ninomiya.
