Two seeds advanced and two fell in round 2 of the ASB Classic in Auckland on Wednesday, with 4th and 5th-seeded Emma Navarro and Marie Bouzkova winning easily in straight sets, while Lesia Tsurenko and Wang Xinyu, the No 3 and 6 seeds made their exits.
I think it couldn’t get any better for me. I think I stayed very solid. I tried and Amanda is such a huge hitter so it’s not easy to find some winners but I’m glad I could find a few here and there and get the win here today. Marie Bouzkova
22-year old Navarro met little resistance in her Round of 16 encounter with Russia’s Elina Avanesyan, easing to a 6-1 6-2 win in just 62 minutes.
Navarro simply outclassed her 21-year old opponent, and broke her serve 5 times out of 8 to march into the quarter-finals relatively untroubled.
The 4th-seeded American Navarro was impressive on this day, which started with a glitch with the electronic coin toss, prompting the umpire to go off in search of a proper coin. The court-side big screens lit up with conflicting images.
“Hum, that’s a bit strange,’’ the umpire said. “I think we are going to flip a normal coin.’’
Later, at the post-match press conference Navarro said there had been confusion over the coin toss.
“One screen said ASB [title sponsor] and the other said WTA [governing body],” she explained. “I had chosen ASB. A little mix up there, but we got the physical coin out there to flip, so it was settled.
“I’m finding my groove a little bit, second match of the year so it’s good to have some court time behind me,” Navarro continued. “I’m happy with my performance today and that I’m able to move on and keep playing some tennis here in Auckland.”
Navarro will meet the winner of China’s Yue Yuan and Croatia’s Petra Martic, the 7th seed from Croatia, in her quarter-final, and will be eyeing a semi-final encounter against top seed Coco Gauff later this week.
Marie Bouzkova is now being coached by Conchita Martinez and demolished Amanda Anisimova in the Round of 16 in Auckland
© Phil Walter/Getty Images
She will not be joined in the quarters, however, by her compatriot Amanda Anisimova, who fell to Bouzkova, 6-0 6-1, in just 52 minutes after having her serve broken 5 times.
Anisimova is a former World No 21, who met the first roadblock of her come-back from an 8-month mental health and burnout break, despite the electronic coin toss working a treat for them.
Playing her first match since May in the opening round of the Auckland WTA 250 tournament after taking her break from tennis, Anisimova beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in two sets in a match which stretched over 2 hours.
She was unable to gain a foothold in her 2nd-round match against Bouzkova, the 5th-seed from the Czech Republic, who was flawless and did not offer her a single opening.
Bouzkova put 80% of first serves into play and managed to neutralise Anisimova’s power-hitting game from the baseline.
“I think it couldn’t get any better for me,” Boukova said. “I think I stayed very solid.
“I tried and Amanda is such a huge hitter so it’s not easy to find some winners but I’m glad I could find a few here and there and get the win here today.”
Anismova is a former US Open junior champion who was a French Open semi-finalist in 2019.
She stuck mainly to the baseline on Wednesday, and occasionally showed her power, but Bouzkova effectively broke up her game with variation, going to the net at times and using top-spin and slice to constantly change the momentum of the match.
Bouzkova has hired Conchita Martinez, the former Wimbledon champion, as her coach, hoping to emulate the results the Spaniard enjoyed with former World No 1 Garbiñe Muguruza.
Under Martinez, Muguruza won Wimbledon in 2017, reached the Australian Open final in 2020, and returned to the Top 3 in the WTA rankings after winning the season-ending championships in 2021.
Such results are still a dream for the rising Czech star, who peaked at No 24 in the WTA rankings in 2022, the same year she won her first WTA title and made her first major quarter-final at Wimbledon.
“A coach like Conchi can help me find better solutions on court than what I’ve been doing,” Bouzkova said. “Now that I’ve matured, I wanted to give it a really good try so I can take advantage of all the advice I can get.”
“Overall, it’s been much more intense [the training], and not even in terms of strictly hours spent on court, but more in terms of the way we’re focusing on different things.
“It’s pretty new to me, because we’re not just doing the standard drills I’ve been doing all my life, but I’m also adding so many new ones.
“We’re also timing everything because that’s something Conchi likes to do, so we’ll spend a few minutes on one drill then jump right to another.
“I want to raise my level to where I’m creating more opportunities to be aggressive, not necessarily going for it so much more but using the court and coming to net so I’m not just back of the court all the time!”
Emma Raducanu, who has made it into the AO main draw, will meet No 2 seed Elina Svitolina on Thursday
© Dave Rowland/Getty Images
France’s Diane Parry upset Ukraine’s Tsurenko, 2-6 6-4 6-1, to notch up her first Top 50 win since June 2023 and reach the Auckland quarters where she will play Wang Xiyu after the Chinese took out her compatriot, Wang Xinyu, 6-3 3-6 7-6(2).
Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu is back in action in Auckland on Thursday, having just received news that she has made it into the main draw of the Australian Open after Lauren Davis pulled out.
Raducanu entered the first major of 2024 with a ranking of 301, but can use a protected ranking of 103, and needed 5 withdrawals to make the cut into the main draw.
Davis cited a shoulder injury for her withdrawal, joining Karolina Muchova, Irina Camelia-Begu, Caty McNally and Petra Kvitova on the sidelines for various reasons.
The 2023 Australian Open was the last Grand Slam tournament that Raducanu played before her injury hiatus, with the Brit losing in the 2nd-round to Gauff.
After undergoing surgeries on her ankle and both wrists, Raducanu was off the tour for 8 months and won her come-back match in Auckland in the 1st-round over Elena-Gabriela Ruse, 6-3 4-6 7-5, on Tuesday.
The Brit now faces a sterner test in No 2 seed Elina Svitolina from Ukraine in round 2.
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