Britain’s Francesca Jones earned her first WTA Tour win of the season in the 1st-round of the Copa Colsanitas, the WTA 250 event in Bogota, when the 23-year-old dispatched Colombian wild-card Yuliana Monroy over two days, 6-1 6-2.
Jones has been bedevilled by injuries in her fledgling career, but memorably achieved her best result of 2023 in Bogota by reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Tatjana Maria from Germany, which proved to be her last top-level appearance until this week.
The World No 214 made it to the 2nd-round of Australian Open qualifying before tearfully retiring injured, before also having to give up, just 3 games into the final, in the Hammamet 2 ITF W35 in Tunisia.
Jones, though, made a statement of intent during her run to the final at last month’s WTA 125 San Luis Open, finishing as the runner-up to Nadia Podoroska from Argentina, while her WTA 250 come-back has been a successful affair.
The Briton won the first 4 games against Monroy, and was leading by a break in the second set when play was suspended on Tuesday, but she emphatically finished the job on Wednesday to set up a 2nd-round meeting with German 7th seed Laura Siegemund, who was a 7-6(5) 7-5 winner over Belarusian qualifier Iryna Shymanovich, for a place in the Last 8.
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Italy’s Sara Errani emerged from a break-filled match against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo with a 6-2 4-6 6-4 win on Wednesday to seal a place in the quarter-finals, losing her serve 6 times, but breaking Sorribes Tormo 8 times.
Neither scored an ace on the clay-court surface, and Sorribes Tormo finished with 9 double-faults to Errani’s 6.
In other 2nd-round action, 8th-seeded Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia escaped with a 7-6(4) 6-7(5) 6-3 win over Mexico’s Renata Zarazua; while Romania’s Irina Bara rallied past Laura Pigossi, 3-6 7-6(3) 6-4, surviving a rain delay and a match point before outlasting the Brazilian in 3 hours and 22 minutes; and, in the last match of the night, 4th-seeded Cristina Bucsa of Spain strolled past Germany’s Jule Niemeier, 6-4 6-1.
The Copa Colsanitas Zurich has been held since 1998, making it one of the longest-running tournaments on the Hologic WTA Tour calendar as well as the biggest in South America, and, this year, it marks the first sighting of red clay in 2024.
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