Livesport Prague Open
Katerina Siniakova, the No 2 seed at the Livesport Prague Open in her native Czech Republic, survived a 1st-round scare on Monday but eventually outlasted American qualifier Louisa Chirico, ranked 228 in the world, with a 7-5 4-6 6-3 win after 2 hours and 26 minutes, while her fellow countrywoman and top seed Linda Noskova had little trouble dispatching Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska, 6-3 6-2.
Siniakova offset her 7 aces with 7 double-faults but saved 8 of the 12 break points she faced.
Also advancing to round 2 were Poland’s No 4 seed Magda Linette and No 6 Magdalena Frech, while lucky loser Kathinka von Deichmann of Liechtenstein upset 8th-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia, 6-4 6-4.
With a population of under 40,000 and just 25 kilometres long, only 2 Liechtensteiners have competed at WTA level, the first being Stephanie Vogt, who peaked at No 137 in February 2014 but lost both of her tour-level matches at the 2012 London Olympic Games and Nürnberg 2016.
Vogt is followed by Von Deichmann, who became the first Liechtensteiner to play a Grand Slam main draw when she qualified for the 2018 US Open, and her ranking peaked at 153 in the same year.
Now ranked 241, she entered the Prague draw as a lucky loser, and promptly upset Schmiedlova in a match highlighted by Von Deichmann’s defensive skills.
The 30-year-old has technically won 2 tour-level matches before, but both, over Laura Siegemund at Lugano 2018 and over Irina Khromacheva at Seoul 2023, ended in retirement.
Von Deichmann’s defeat of Schmiedlova is therefore her first completed tour-level match-win, and a first for her nation.
She now bids to become Liechtenstein’s first ever WTA quarter-finalist against qualifier Oksana Selekhmeteva from Russia in the 2nd-round, a 7-5 6-3 winner over local wild-card Barbora Palicova.
WTAtennis.com
16-year-old Laura Samson also received a wild-card, and the Czech became the first player born in 2008, or later, to win a WTA main-draw match, which she did emphatically with a 6-0 6-2 rout of qualifier Tara Wurth from Croatia.
The teenager, who is ranked 634, showed impressive timing and pace off the ground in her tour-level debut, slamming 19 winners in total, and needing only an hour and 13 minutes to advance.
Samson has already made a name for herself at junior level, where she was ranked World No 1 until last week, having reached the US Open girls’ semi-finals last year, and becoming the Roland Garros girls’ runner-up in June.
In 2024, she also began her transition to pro tournaments, winning 3 ITF W15s this year so far. Prague marks just the 11th pro event that Samson has contested.
Samson is one of 4 Czech players to reach the Last 16 on home soil this week, joining 19-year old Noskova, 19, 20-year old Dominika Salkova, and Siniakova.
Salkova advanced with a 6-4 6-0 win over Zeynep Sonmez from Turkey, and takes on Siniakova next, the most decorated of her compatriots in Prague.
Doubles specialist Ena Shibahara fell in the final round of qualifying to Wurth, but the Japanese then gained entry to the main draw as a lucky loser, and made the most of her second chance by triumphing in the longest match of the 1st round, 7-6(5) 3-6 7-5, over German Tamara Korpatsch in 3 hours exactly.
26-year old Shibahara has already tasted success at the highest level in doubles, winning the 2022 Roland Garros mixed doubles title with Wesley Koolhof, reaching the 2023 Australian Open doubles final with Shuko Aoyama, and landing 10-time doubles titles on the Hologic WTA Tour to rise as high as No 4 in the doubles listings.
The Japanese has now turned her focus onto singles this year, with quietly successful results, and her record stands at a respectable 33-12, including a first ITF title at the Spring W35 in February, and a runner-up showing at the Tokyo W100 in April that has seen her lift her ranking from 543 at the start of this season to 257 this week.
Shibahara’s win over Korpatsch was her first in a main draw following 4 previous losses, and her 2nd career victory over a Top 100 player, which means she will climb even further, with Grand Slam qualifying territory within her sights.
She next will face 19-year-old German Ella Seidel, who upset Nadia Podoroska, the 7th seed from Argentina on Sunday.
UniCredit Iasi Open
American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko rallied to a 5-7 6-4 6-3 upset win over 6th-seeded Italian Martina Trevisan in the opening round in UniCredit Iasi Open at the Ciric Sports Base in Romania on Monday.
Lepchenko trailed 4-3 in the second set and 2-1 in the third, but was able to take advantage of 12 Italian double-faults and broke Trevisan’s serve 11 times in a marathon match that lasted 3 hours and 8 minutes..
No 3 seed Jaqueline Cristian, ranked 66, defeated another Italian, lucky loser Nuria Brancaccio, 6-2 6-4, and will face a fellow Romanian, wild-card Elena-Gabriela Ruse, next, who went the distance against Russia’s Anastasia Tikhonova, 6-3 5-7 6-1.
Meanwhile, France’s Chloe Paquet upset the No 7 seed, Maria Lourdes Carle from Argentina, 6-4 6-2, and will meet Swiss qualifier Simona Waltert, who advanced to the 2nd-round by winning against Russian Ekaterina Makarova, 6-2 6-2.
Also, No 8 seed Anna Bondar of Hungary was a 6-3 6-1 winner over Belgian Marie Benoit, while 5th-seeded Elina Avanesyan, another Russian, cruised to a 6-1 6-2 win over Spain’s Leyre Romero Gormaz.
In a 1st-round encounter between 2 qualifiers, Selena Janicijevic from France defeated Bulgaria’s Gergana Topalova, 6-1 6-3, to notch her 2nd career tour-level win, and she sets up a meeting with Miriam Bulgaru from Romania, who upset 2nd-seed Tatjana Maria from Germany on Sunday.
Also through to round 2 are Croatia’s Petra Martic and and Anca Todoni from Romania, the former a 6-4 6-4 winner over Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz, and the latter whose opponent, Belarusian qualifier Aliona Falei, retired at 0-5 down.
