Second seed Elise Mertens advanced to the second round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz this Wednesday, a day largely successful for seeded players.
Belgium’s Mertens needed two hours and five minutes to overcome Ukrainian qualifier Anhelina Kalinina. The favorite opened sluggishly and had no capacity to challenge her opponent’s aggressiveness and clean game. In the second and third sets, the world No.21 Mertens was stepping into the court more and progressed with a 2-6 6-1 6-2 victory.
Also in the first round, fifth-seeded Russian Veronika Kudermetova needed only 53 minutes to double bagel Austrian Barbara Haas, 2020 French Open semifinalist and sixth seed Nadia Podoroska of Argentina beat her this week’s doubles partner Irina-Camelina Begu of Romania 6-4 6-4, and French qualifier Oceane Dodin conquered seventh-seeded Swiss Jil Teichmann 1-6 6-4 6-2.
Three players have made their way to the Linz quarterfinals so far: fourth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Varvara Gracheva 7-5 6-1 in the second round, Aliaksandra Sasnovich fought past Jana Fett 3-6 6-1 6-3 and booked a meeting with Barbora Krejcikova who edged Greet Minnen 5-7 7-6(7) 6-4.
Jimmie48 is delivering a lot of photos from Wednesday’s tennis action in Linz. Enjoy his gallery!
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE 2020 UPPER AUSTRIA LADIES LINZ:
- Tuesday: Sabalenka starts with victory, Zvonareva wins generational battle
- Monday: Greet Minnen knocks out Dayana Yastremska in first round
