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The last remaining first round, and a couple of second-round matches were played at the Lyon Open on Wednesday. Wildcard Clara Burel ousted fifth-seeded compatriot Alize Cornet in their first-round match. Burel won 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes.
Burel never looked discomfited in the match despite losing the second set by the same score-line as she had won the first. In the final set, the world no. 218 built a 4-0 against her higher-ranked opponent before the latter made a comeback to narrow the score to 4-3.
However, the turnaround was brief as Burel didn’t drop a single game thereafter to take her place in the pre-quarter-finals. In the second round, the 19-year-old will play Aliaksandra Sasnovich. . The second seed from France, Fiona Ferro, who played her second-round match against Tereza Martincova advanced to the quarters.
Ferro led Martincova 6-2, 4-1 when the latter decided to retire in the match. Ferro will play either Burel or Sasnovich in the quarter-final.
Lyon Open: Clara Tauson extends run
In the last first-round match of the second half of the draw, Swiss qualifier Viktorija Golubic defeated Belarus’ Vera Lapko.
Golubic dropped the opening set but righted her game in the latter two sets to clinch a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win in two hours and eight minutes. Golubic will take on third-seeded Caroline Garcia for a place in the last-eight. In the top half, 18-year-old Clara Tauson continued her merry march at the Lyon Open.
Tauson defeated Timea Babos 6-2, 6-3 to reach the first WTA quarter-final of her career. Although the score-line looks quite one-sided, the match played out differently. The Hungarian led the teenager by a break across both sets but Tauson fought back to notch a comeback and claim a straight-sets victory for her in the end.
In her search for her first-ever semi-final spot, Tauson will take on Camila Giorgi. The Italian had earlier posted a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) victory over Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic.