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Three Russians played their first-round matches at the Poland Open on Tuesday. Of the three, only one player advanced to the round-of-16 in Gdynia. Varvara Lepchenko defeated Russian lucky loser Marina Melnikova in their opener.
Lepchenko came from a set down to post a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 win in three hours and eight minutes. In the second set, the American was a game away from crashing out but pulled around the match to her corner. In the second round, Lepchenko will take on Georgian qualifier Ekaterina Gorgodze.
Gorgodze also came through her round-of-32 clash against a Russian lucky loser, Anastasia Zakharova. And as with Lepchenko, she, too, came from down a set to claim a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 victory in two hours and 13 minutes. The sole Russian to make it to the pre-quarter-finals was lucky loser Amina Anshba.
The 325th-ranked Anshba, who’s making her main draw debut in singles this week, ousted Harmony Tan of France, 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 58 minutes. In the second round, she’ll play Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain.
Poland Open: Seeds move onwards
The ninth seed needed two hours and 12 minutes to win 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 against Poland’s Magdalena Frech.
The match featured 13 breaks of serve, with the winner claiming seven service breaks and Frech converting six. Third seed Irina-Camelia Begu also took her place in the second round. The Romanian won 6-1, 6-2 against Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure in an hour and 12 minutes.
For a place in the quarter-finals, Begu will play Pole, Katarzyna Kawa. Kawa won against Croatian lucky loser, Tereza Mrdeza 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in an hour and 59 minutes. The last seed to advance to the round-of-16 on Tuesday was the sixth seed, Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
The Belarusian trailed her opponent, wildcard Weronika Baszak of Poland by a set before recovering her ground. After an hour and 46 minutes of play, Sasnovich won 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. She’ll next play Katerina Kozlova. Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch reached the second round of the Poland Open with a win over 11th seed and Sasnovich’s compatriot, Olga Govortsova.
Korpatsch dropped the first set 1-6 but bounced back to win the match 1-6, 7-5, 7-5, a minute shy of the three-hour-mark.