Tuesday in Birmingham was all about two of the tournament’s marquee players kicking off their 2015 AEGON Classic campaign as two-time grand slam winner Victoria Azarenka and tournament top seed Simona Halep successfully completed their first matches on grass this season!
Azarenka’s victory over Varvara Lepchenko forced the Belarusian to dig deep in her first match on British lawn this year as Azarenka quickly found herself four games down against the American in the first set. The longer the match progressed, the more confident Azarenka got while Lepchenko failed to take her chances as Azarenka moved into the second round.
Simona Halep’s stay on center court was much more brief as the Romanian world #2 had little problems with Britain’s Naomi Broady, sending the local favorite off in two quick sets, much to the delight of the Romanian fans in the crowd.
Unfortunately for the Birmingham crowd, British darling Heather Watson joined Naomi Broady on her way out of the tournament, following a two-set loss against plucky Serbian Aleksandra Krunic, leaving Johanna Konta as the final remaining British palyer in the draw.
Undoubtly the most dramatic encounter of the day was saved for last as Andrea Petkovic’s match against Katerina Siniakova had everything that makes women’s tennis such an entertaining sport to watch.
The Czech hothead is always good for plenty of drama on court and met her match in Petkovic today as their two-and-half-hour three-setter was filled with yelling, crying, racket-throwing and everything in between. After Petkovic clinched the first set, Siniakova managed to steer the match towards an exciting final set tiebreak that ended with the young Czech celebrating the biggest win of her young career.
Birmingham will welcome some of the tournament’s most popular players on center court tomorrow as tournament darlings Ana Ivanovic & Sabine Lisicki are due to play their first grass season match of the year, joined by Eugenie Bouchard in her mission to finally turn her nightmare 2015 season around.
Don’t miss any of it by checking back to Women’s Tennis Blog all week for all the latest from the 2015 AEGON International!
