The 1st-round of the WTA 500 Adelaide International was completed on Tuesday, and the upsets continued, with Laura Siegemund beating 7th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova in 3 sets, and qualifier Katerina Siniakova seeing off wild-card Karolina Pliskova, but Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Kasatkina and Caroline Garcia were among those to make it safely through to round 2.
I was sleeping in the first set, I’m not really a morning person. It took me time to wake up and get into the match. I’m glad I managed to win it. I like to play in Australia. Conditions are good for me. Sometimes I get too worked up, but then I calm down and play better. Jelena Ostapenko
Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, though, pulled out of the tournament with a hip injury, just days before the Australian Open, and now faces a race against time to be fit for the first Grand Slam of the year, which gets underway on Sunday.
The Czech World No 7, who began her season at the United Cup, beating Serbia’s Olga Danilovic and losing to China’s Zheng Qinwen, was seeded No 3 in Adelaide, and was due to meet Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Tuesday, who played and lost to lucky loser Taylor from the USA, 6-3 7-6(4).
Townsend advances to next face Marta Kostyuk from the Ukraine.
Caroline Garcia avoided an upset by coming from a break down in the final set to defeat 18-year-old Australian wild-card Taylah Preston (L), and next will play Jelena Ostapenko in round 2
© Sarah Reed/Getty Images
Former French Open winner Ostapenko, the Latvian 6th seed and World No 12, needed 3 sets to get past Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, 2-6 6-2 6-4, having lost her serve twice in the first set before waking up.
“I was sleeping in the first set, I’m not really a morning person,” Ostapenko admitted about her early start at Memorial Drive. “It took me time to wake up and get into the match. I’m glad I managed to win it.”
Ostapenko recovered to win 6 games out of 7 and reach 3-1 in the final set.
“I like to play in Australia,” the 2023 Australian Open quarter-finalist added. “Conditions are good for me. Sometimes I get too worked up, but then I calm down and play better.”
A quarter-finalist at last week’s Brisbane International, Ostapenko took an hour and 58 minutes to figure things out and prevail, denying 26th-ranked Cirstea her first win of the 2024 season.
Ostapenko has now won 4 of her 5 matches against Cirstea, the 2017 Roland Garros champion having avenged her loss to Cirstea in their most recent prior meeting, which was at 2023 Wimbledon.
In Tuesday’s match, Cirstea won 4 games in a row to clinch the opening set, where she never faced break point, but Ostapenko rebounded in the second, earning her first break of the day to lead 2-1, then fending off 6 break points in the following game to grit out a hold for 3-1.
The Latvian then hit back-to-back aces to close out the set, and, in the decider, her powerful groundstrokes and returns gave her to a commanding 5-2 lead.
Although she was broken serving for the match, then missed out on two match points at 5-3, Ostapenko earned a third chance at 5-4 with a stunning forehand winner on the sideline, and was not be denied, firing her 6th ace to triumph.
Ostapenko will next play former World No 4 Garcia, now ranked 20th, after the Frenchwoman also avoided an upset, coming from a break down in the final set to defeat 18-year-old Australian wild-card Taylah Preston, 6-4 1-6 6-3.
Daria Kasatkina won her opener against qualifier Claire Liu in straight sets
© Chris Hyde/Getty Images
Russian Daria Kasatkina also won her opener against American qualifier Claire Liu, 6-4 6-3, to reach the 2nd-round on Tuesday, and the World No 15 will face another qualifier in Anna Kalinskaya, who is also from Russia, next.
Germany’s Laura Siegemund, a member of the country’s winning United Cup team last week, upset 7th seed Liudmila Samsonova, 6-7(1) 6-4 6-4.
The World No 89 needed 2 hours and 53 minutes to outlast the 14th-ranked Russian, and grab the 17th Top 20 win of her career.
Last week, Siegemund, the WTA Doubles World No 5, went 3-0 in mixed doubles at the mixed-team United Cup, including winning the title-clinching match for her country.
Siegemund continued her strong form with Tuesday’s win over Samsonova, coming back from breaks down in both the second and third sets, while she has now tied their head-to-head at 2-2, including wins in their last two meetings.
Eighth seed Veronika Kudermetova from Russia also progressed with a 6-2 7-5 win over yet another lucky loser, Ashlyn Krueger, but former World No 1 Karolina Pliskova bowed out 6-2 6-1 to qualifier Katerina Siniakova in an all-Czech encounter that lasted just 72 minutes.
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