After covering the Brisbane International from start to finish, our Jimmie48 is already in Adelaide, where he’s photographing the inaugural edition of the Premier-level Adelaide International. Monday at this Australian Swing tournament was all about first-round action.
The highest seed playing on Monday, No.4 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, defeated Russian qualifier Daria Kasatkina 6-4 6-4, American seventh seed Sofia Kenin dispatched Swiss qualifier Viktorija Golubic 6-0 6-4, while ninth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany proved a worthy replacement for the injured Petra Kvitova, dominating Chinese Wang Qiang 6-1 6-3 to record her first win this season.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Donna Vekic and Dayana Yastremska all earned first wins of the year at Adelaide. Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova eliminated Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, her most recent doubles partner from the Brisbane International, 6-2 6-4, Croatian world No.20 Vekic overcame Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 4-6 6-1 6-3, while Ukrainian world No.24 Yastremska, under the guidance of Sascha Bajin, beat lucky loser Timea Babos 7-5 6-3.
Home favorite Ajla Tomljanovic saved two set points to overcome Kazakh qualifier Yulia Putintseva 7-6(4) 6-2 and book a second-round meeting with Simona Halep.
Our Jimmie48 photographed a lot of these matches, plus the doubles pairing of Romanians Simona Halep and Raluca Olaru, but he was also all around the tournament, shooting player practices and the All-Access Hour. Moreover, we have photos of world No.1 Ashleigh Barty presenting her coach Craig Tyzzer with the WTA Coach of the Year Award.
Keep checking back to Women’s Tennis Blog for daily updates from the Adelaide International.