Top seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland eliminated hometown favorite Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6(4) 6-4 in the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, even though the Russian served for the first set and had two break points in the final game.
Playing her first tour-level main draw since June 2018, qualifier Oceane Dodin beat Johanna Konta 6-3 6-4 to reach her first Premier-level quarterfinals. The world No.159 Dodin will next face in-form 20-year-old Elena Rybakina, who was down 1-3 and 0-3 in each set, but recovered to beat Fiona Ferro 6-3 6-4. Kazakhstan’s Rybakina has had an impressive 2020 season so far, with the Shenzhen final, Hobart title, third round of the Australian Open (first third round appearance at a Grand Slam) and now she’s through to the quarterfinals in St. Petersburg as the eighth seed.
Also in the second round, 18-year-old Russian qualifier Anastasia Potapova defeated Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6(2) 6-3.
In the only first-round match on Wednesday, Alize Cornet demolished Jelena Ostapenko 6-1 6-2.
Our photographer Jimmie48 made it to all these matches, plus several press conferences and practice sessions of Maria Sakkari and Donna Vekic.
Second round continues on Thursday, as play starts at 1 p.m. local time.
