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Jelena Ostapenko defeated Danielle Collins in their first-round match at the Abu Dhabi Open on Monday. The fifth seed from Latvia needed two hours and 18 minutes to post a 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 win against the American. Collins had 33 winners of which 11 were aces as compared to Ostapenko’s 30 winners.
However, Ostapenko was able to break her game down in the most crunch moments of the match to tilt it in her favour. Collins also struggled to win points off her second serve. In the first set, she won 26% of her second-serve points.
She fared better in the second set winning 50% of her second-serve points while in the decider, she won 41%. In the end, Ostapenko finished the match with just two more points than Collins’ 99. In the second round, Ostapenko will play either Rebecca Marino or Qinwen Zheng.
Abu Dhabi Open: Anett Kontaveit surges ahead
Seventh seed Anett Kontaveit also advanced to the second round with a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 comeback win over Shuai Zhang. The Estonian came through after two hours and 21 minutes of play.
Kontaveit had 10 aces in the match. She also faced 13 break points and saved 10 of these. She also broke Zhang thrice across the match. Kontaveit also won 69% of her first-serve points to Zhang’s 73% and 52% of her second-serve points to Zhang’s 48%.
In the round-of-16, Kontaveit will take on Shelby Rogers or Leylah Fernandez. Meanwhile, Marta Kostyuk scored a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 win over Sorana Cirstea in their round-of-32 clash. The Ukrainian won 71% of her first-serve points and saved six of the eight break points she faced.
She also converted four break points on the Romanian’s serve. Next up for Kostyuk is second seed Belinda Bencic, who received a first-round bye. Lastly, Elise Mertens also moved into the second round of the Abu Dhabi Open.
The Belgian was the only player to win her match in straight sets, defeating Martina Trevisan 6-0, 6-2 in an hour and 15 minutes. Mertens will next play fourth seed Veronika Kudermetova.