Rebeka Masarova of Spain fended off No. 2 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6) in first-round action at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Tuesday in Linz, Austria.
Alexandrova and Masarova exchanged service breaks in the middle of the third set. In the decisive tiebreaker, Masarova rallied from a 5-3 deficit and finally won on her second match point.
No. 1 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece had less work to do to defeat Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain 6-1, 7-6 (6), though like Masarova, Sakkari trailed during her tiebreaker and won on her second match point.
Dalma Galfi of Hungary upset No. 7 seed Bernarda Pera of the United States 6-2, 7-6 (5). Other winners included fifth seed Donna Vekic and sixth seed Petra Martic of Croatia, eighth seed Anastasia Potapova of Russia, Camila Giorgi of Italy, Varvara Gracheva of Russia, Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium and Eva Lys of Germany.
Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open
Shelby Rogers outlasted Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 in a first-round match in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The 30-year-old American saved all four of break points she faced and converted three of six break point opportunities. She won 46 of her 57 first-service points (80.7 percent) to counter Fernandez’s nine aces.
Brazilian sixth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia rallied past Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, while Russian eighth seed Liudmila Samsonova did the same against American Claire Liu 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic needed just 47 minutes to beat Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure 6-1, 6-3. Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, Jil Teichmann of Switzerland and Qinwen Zheng of China also won their matches.
–Field Level Media