Dubai: Two Americans and a couple of Frenchwomen and Germans each were among those advancing to the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open that got under way at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Monday.
Among the early casualties was last year’s runner-up and sixth seed Karolina Pliskova – handed a wild card here this year – along with former top-10 player Ekaterina Makarova.
Pliskova went down in straight sets 7-6 (5), 6-1 against a clinical CoCo Vandeweghe in the last match on centre court after fellow American Madison Brengle had secured a 6-4, 7-5 win against Makarova in the opening game of the tournament.
Germany’s Andrea Petkovic was quick and clever in her 6-2, 6-1 win over Italian Camila Giorgi in just 63 minutes, while Julia Goerges barely allowed Russian veteran and eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to settle in as she breezed through 6-0, 6-1 in just 55 minutes.
The French also tasted a couple of successes with Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia through to the next round. Mladenovic defeated Lesia Tsurenko from the Ukraine 6-2, 7-6 and fellow Frenchwoman Garcia easily got the better of Anna Karolina Schmiedlova from Slovakia 6-4, 6-1.
In second round action on Wednesday, Brengle will now run into former two-time Wimbledon champion and fourth seed Petra Kvitova, while Vandeweghe will be up against Mladenovic. In the upper half of the draw, Goerges will face the winner of the first round match between Barbora Strycova and Tsvetana Pironkova, one of the four qualifiers coming through earlier on Monday.
Petkovic will await the winner of the match between former world number one and multiple semi-finalist in Dubai, Jelena Jankovic and Swiss sensation Belinda Bencic.
“I went out there and not banking on because I won at Wimbledon that I’m going to win today or that she won, I think it was Miami she won, that she’s gonna win today. So just went out there, focused on the game plan and focused on myself and just went out there and played and had fun,” Vandeweghe told media after her upset win.
“You have to play round by round. Today my only focus was playing Karolina. I actually had no idea who I was playing next round if I won. So, you know, I will sit down with my coach, Craig, and we will go over what didn’t work here, what worked well here in today’s match,” she added.
Disheartened by her early exit, Pliskova had no excuse to offer except that she went down to a better player on the night. “That was a very tough first round, because, like I said already, she’s a very dangerous player. You never know what’s gonna come from her side. And obviously she’s great serving,” Pliskova rued.
“It’s tough. I didn’t have many chances. The first set was close, but still I think she was a little bit better. Second set obviously she was feeling much better, more confident from the baseline, as well. So nothing more to say,” she added.
Results:
First Round singles: Madison Brengle bt Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 7-5; Andrea Petkovic bt Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-1;Julia Goerges bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-0, 6-1; Kristina Mladenovic bt Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 7-6; Caroline Garcia bt Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-1; CoCo Vandeweghe bt Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (5), 6-1.
First Round doubles: Yi-Fan Xu/Saisai Zheng bt Fatma Al Nabhani/Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (8); Sara Errani/Carla Suarez Navarro bt Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0, 4-6, 1-0 (6).
-Ends
