Stuttgart, April 16 (IANS Jasmine Paolini and Emma Navarro lived up to their seeded billing at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Tuesday evening, quickly picking up first-round wins at the WTA 500 indoor-clay event in Stuttgart, Germany.
No. 5 seed Paolini of Italy needed only 1 hour and 4 minutes to dismiss Eva Lys 6-2, 6-1 amd moved a a step closer to matching her quarterfinal run from last year, WTA reports.
Paolini won a whopping 73 percent of points returning the Lys first serve, and the Italian was rewarded with a 6-for-8 break point conversion success rate. She improved to 2-0 against Lys (4-0 in sets).
World No. 6 Paolini will take on a German wild card for a second match in a row when she meets Jule Niemeier in the second round.
Later, No. 7 seed American Navarro made a spectacular Stuttgart tournament debut when she swept past Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 6-0.
In the 1-hour and 16-minute clash between Top 20 players, Navarro fired 24 winners to Haddad Maia’s eight. Navarro converted four of her nine break points in the match, and the American never dropped serve.
I’ve had a lot of long matches this year, and a lot of three-sets. To get it done a little bit quicker feels good. Proud of my form … It’s my first tournament on red clay this year, so I’m leaning into it and having some fun out here,” Navarro said.
Navarro will now face a former Grand Slam champion in the second round, when she has her first career meeting with 2017 Roland Garros victor Jelena Ostapenko.
Ostapenko advanced to the second round by beating Dayana Yastremska in the day’s first Centre Court match. With the score at 6-3, 3-0 in her favour, her Ukrainian doubles partner was forced to retire due to illness.
The 2017 French Open champion had mixed feelings when speaking afterwards, “I played well but it’s always a shame when a match ends like this. I hope it’s nothing serious. The atmosphere is magnificent, and the tournament is so well organised. Even though the courts are a little slower this year, it’s a lot of fun.”
–IANS
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