Second-seeded Kristina Mladenovic rallied from a difficult start to down Chloe Paquet 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 in an all-French battle Tuesday during the opening round of the Open 6me Sens in Lyon, France.
Mladenovic, who had 14 double faults, failed to win a game on her own serve in the opening set, but she settled in from there. She cruised through the second set without being broken, then broke Paquet’s serve four times in the third set, including to clinch the match after Mladenovic failed to serve out at 5-3.
Also advancing to the Round of 16 were No. 6 Jil Teichmann of Switzerland, No. 7 Daria Kasatkina of Russia and No. 8 Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia. Teichmann was the only seeded player to win in straight sets, downing France’s Clara Burel 6-4, 6-3.
Abierto GNP Seguros
Top seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine cruised through the opening round, dispatching Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-2 in exactly an hour at Monterrey, Mexico.
Svitolina had six aces and three double faults, not facing a break point all match. She won 24 of 29 (83 percent) first-serve points.
Also moving on was No. 5 Sloane Stephens, who survived fellow American Emma Navarro 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. No. 10 Lauren Davis joined Stephens in advancing, though Venus Williams could not add to the Americans’ successes, falling 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The only seeded player in action to fall was Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka, who lost 6-2, 6-2 in just 67 minutes to Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek. No. 2 Johanna Konta of Great Britain was set to face Belgium’s Kim Clijsters on Tuesday evening.
–Field Level Media