The last top-tier WTA tournament of the bruised 2020 season takes place in Linz. After two qualifying days, main-draw play kicked off at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Monday with four singles matches on the schedule. Our photographer Jimmie48 is bringing us exclusive coverage from the International-level event played on hard court.
The highlight of the day was Greet Minnen‘s 6-4 6-3 upset of third seed Dayana Yastremska. The world No.110 Belgian completed one of her biggest wins of the season in just 77 minutes. The 23-year-old Minnen is especially thankful to her girlfriend Alison Van Uytvanck, who’s been with her in Linz, helping her with tactics and techniques for this type of courts. After the first-round match, the couple kissed on the court and our Jimmie48 captured that moment.
Fourth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova broke Katerina Siniakova four times en route to a 6-3 6-4 victory that booked her a spot in the second round where she’ll face Russian Varvara Gracheva, who edged past Ukrainian lucky loser Katarina Zavatska 6-4 7-5 earlier on Monday.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich eliminated eighth seed Bernarda Pera 6-3 6-1.
We also have photos of Belarusian top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who kicks off her campaign at the 2020 Upper Austria Ladies Linz against Italian Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday evening.
Keep checking back to Women’s Tennis Blog for more photos from Linz this week!
