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A day after the top seed, Marie Bouzkova lost in the Prague Open first round, it was the turn of second seed, Lin Zhu to do the same. Yanina Wickmayer upset the Chinese 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 17 minutes to reach the second round on Tuesday.
In the first set the 33-year-old dropped, Zhu won 80% of her first-serve points. She also converted four break points while dropping her serve once in the set that accounted for the lone game Wickmayer won in the set. The Belgian upped her first-serve points won to 68% in the second set and 76% in the deciding set.
In the third set, Wickmayer also won 52% points on return on Zhu’s first serve and 56% points on return on the latter’s second serve. Across the latter two sets, Wickmayer failed to save only two break points of the seven she faced.
Both of the break points she failed to save came in the second set. In the decider, she saved all three break points she faced. This win has been another stride for Wickmayer that she’s continued to make throughout this year.
Last week, Wickmayer lost in the semi-finals of the Warsaw Open to eventual titlist, Iga Swiatek but not before pushing the world no. 1 in their match. The former world no. 12’s also won two ITF $100,000 titles in Trnava, Slovak Republic and Surbiton, Great Britain in May and June respectively.
All of these good results meant that Wickmayer was able to regain entry into the top-100 last week, with her now ranked 93rd in the world.
Prague Open: No end in sight of losses for Shuai Zhang
Meanwhile, in the second round in Czech Republic this week, Wickmayer will play Tamara Korpatsch.
Among the other seeds who played on Tuesday, only Shuai Zhang lost in the first round. The third seed’s fellow Chinese, Yue Yuan posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over the 34-year-old in 71 minutes. Lastly, fourth seed Linda Noskova and ninth seed Xiyu Wang moved into the second round of the Prague Open.
The Czech won 6-1, 6-2 against American qualifier Elvina Kalieva. Wang beat Clara Tauson, 6-3, 6-2. 