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Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini advanced to the second round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Sunday, the opening day of the main draw play. The Italian defeated Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in two hours and 14 minutes in their opening-round clash.
Both players won 106 points in the match and it was Yastremska who did better in certain areas during the match. She won 50% of her second-serve points to Paolini’s 41%. However, Yastremska was let down by her poor break-point conversion even as Paolini was able to break the Ukrainian’s serve on more occasions.
Of the 12 break points she faced, Paolini saved nine while making good of five of the 16 chances she had on Yastremska’s serve. This was the third meeting between the pair – with both their previous two meetings coming within a fortnight of each other this year, at the Portoroz Open and the Courmayeur Ladies Open – and Paolini has won all three.
Upper Austria Ladies Linz: Alison Riske makes quick work in 1R
For a place in the quarter-finals, Paolini will face Saisai Zheng. The Chinese player won against France’s Clara Burel 6-4, 6-1 in their first-round match in an hour and 25 minutes.
Zheng won 65% of her first-serve points to Burel’s 45% and 55% of her second-serve points to the latter’s 51%. Both players faced six break points each but Zheng went on to save five while converting five on Burel’s serve.
Zheng finished the match with almost 20 points more than Burel – 74 to the latter’s 56. Burel’s fellow countrywoman, Fiona Ferro also joined in exiting the event in the first round. Aliaksandra Sasnovich defeated Ferro 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in an hour and 49 minutes to make it through to the round-of-16.
The Belarusian will play second seed Simona Halep for a chance to reach the quarter-finals. The other seed who began her campaign at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Sunday, eighth-seeded Alison Riske also took her place in the round-of-16. The American needed 69 minutes to get past Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-3, 6