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Back on grass, top seed CoCo Vandeweghe rediscovered good vibrations. The two time champion, who lifted the trophy at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2014 and 2016, defeating respectively Zheng Jie and Kristina Mladenovic, notched a 6-2 7-6(1) win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich, suffering the 13th defeat in 18 matches against Top 20 opponents.
In a rematch of the third rubber of last year's Fed Cup final, when Vandeweghe claimed a crucial point to pave the way for the 3-2 victory, she extended her impressive main draw record here to 13-2. The Belarusian managed to save six match points at 5-4 down and force a tiebreaker, but Vandeweghe reeled off five points in a row and closed out the third tiebreak out of five played this season.
Claiming her seventh win in 2018, owning a modest 7-7 win-loss record so far, Vandeweghe will meet for the second time Arantxa Rus, who beat her in their lone previous meeting here in 2011. The Dutch saved two match points and completed the fourth come back win this season in her 6-7(5) 6-4 7-6(7) and extended to 14-8 her overall record in tiebreaks this season.
As a wildcard last year, Arantxa Rus defeated Timea Babos to make her first WTA quarterfinal in five years. Rus, who managed to climb back shortly into the top 100 for the first time since May 2013, had lost the first three meetings against her opening opponent, with all their encounters coming in German ITF events on clay.
The Russian, despite 18 aces, surrendered to the eighth defeat in the last ten matches against lefty players. In her 13th overall meeting against a Top 20 player, Rus will bid for her third win, the first since beating Sam Stosur at Wimbledon in 2012.
Local wildcard Biniane Schoofs scored her first WTA main draw victory since 2011. The world No.179, playing just her second ever WTA event following Luxembourg 2011, defeated Carina Witthoeft for the second time in the last month.
Schoofs beat the German 6-3, 6-4 in the Cagnes-sur-Mer ITF $100,000 and inflicted the German, ranked 99 places higher than her, the seventh straight defeat to open her 's-Hertogenbosch campaign. Schoofs won 67% of return points against Witthoeft's second serve and completed five breaks to clinch a 6-4 7-5 win.
No.6 seed Alison Van Uytvanck extended to 3-0 her head-to-head record against Richel Hogenkamp, coming off a hard-fought defeat against Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros. The Belgian defeated the Dutch in Luxembourg in 2015 and two years later in the Poitiers ITF $100,000 tournament, on indoor hard courts.
This time, Hogenkamp managed to win just three games and suffered the sixth main draw exit this season. Van Uytvanck played more consistently on big points and sealed seven out of eight close games to complete a 6-1 6-2 victory without losing her serve and celebrate her 17th WTA win.