Jennifer Brady returns with win in Washington
IMAGE: Jennifer Brady in action during her first round match against China’s Zhang Shuai. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
After nearly two full years away, 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady played her first competitive match and dominated Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open on Tuesday in Washington.
Brady, a 28-year-old from Harrisburg, Pa., was sidelined by knee and foot injuries since the summer of 2021. Back at full strength, she needed just 68 minutes to beat Kalinina, ranked No. 28 in the world, by winning a whopping 18 of 20 first-service points (90 percent) and converting six of nine break-point opportunities.
Two other Americans won early Tuesday, with Hailey Baptiste defeating Czech foe Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 and Peyton Stearns topping Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-4.
Romania’s Sorana Cirstea won a marathon second-set tiebreaker to take down Petra Martic of Croatia, 6-3, 7-6 (13). Martic led 6-3 before Cirstea saved three straight set points; Martic eventually failed on seven occasions to close it out before Cirstea pushed ahead for good.
In evening matches, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez eliminated the United States’ Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-5, and seventh-seeded Madison Keys of the U.S. topped China’s Qinwen Zheng 7-5, 6-1.
Livesport Prague Open
No. 4 seed Linda Noskova is the highest seed still standing in her home nation after beating Elvina Kalieva 6-1, 6-2 in 60 minutes in the Czech Republic.
After another Czech player, No. 1 seed Marie Bouzkova, was defeated Monday, the second and third seeds lost their first-round matches on Tuesday. Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer rallied past Chinese No. 2 Lin Zhu 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Yue Yuan beat No. 3 Shuai Zhang 6-2, 6-2 in an all-Chinese battle.
No. 9 seed Xiyu Wang of China beat Denmark’s Clara Tauson 6-3, 6-2. French No. 6 seed Alize Cornet completed a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over Czech foe Lucie Havlickova after their match was suspended Monday.
Other winners Tuesday included Germany’s Jule Niemeier, the Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, Emiliana Arango of Colombia and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.
Frances Tiafoe advances in Washington
IMAGE: Frances Tiafoe reacts during his first round match against China’s Yibing Wu. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/Reuters
United States countrymen Frances Tiafoe and Brandon Nakashima showed off their tiebreaker prowess on Tuesday at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, winning their matches by taking back-to-back tiebreakers in Washington.
Tiafoe, the second seed, got past Russia’s Aslan Karatsev 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) in second-round action. Neither player broke serve in the match, with Tiafoe saving four break points and Karatsev saving two.
In the first-set tiebreaker, Tiafoe jumped out to a 4-1 lead before prevailing on his third set point. In the second-set tiebreaker, Karatsev led 5-3 before Tiafoe won the final four points.
Nakashima edged Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9) in a first-round match. Vukic had two set points in the second-set tiebreaker before Nakashima wrapped it up on his third match point.
Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko knocked out eighth-seeded Sebastian Korda of the U.S. 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in a second-round match.
Other second-round winners were fifth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Chinese qualifier Juncheng Shang, Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori and the United States’ Michael Mmoh.
Japanese lucky loser Sho Shimabukuro, U.S. qualifier Zachary Svajda and Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson earned first-round victories.
Generali Open
Eighth-seeded Daniel Altmaier of Germany rallied for a 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 win over Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler in the first round at Kitzbuhel, Austria.
Altmaier came through in the match’s key moments, saving three of the four break points that he faced and converting all four of his break opportunities.
Fifth-seeded Laslo Djere of Serbia downed Australia’s Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 7-6 (4), but seventh-seeded Serbian Dusan Lajovic lost 6-3, 6-2 to China’s Zhizhen Zhang. Austria’s Dominic Thiem, Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild and France’s Arthur Rinderknech also logged opening-round wins.
Mifel Tennis Open
Fifth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia overcame an inconsistent serving performance to beat Tunisia’s Skander Mansouri 6-4, 6-4 in the first round at Los Cabos, Mexico.
de Minaur put just 47 percent of his first serves in play, but those serves were effective when they were accurate, as he won 22 of 26 points. He failed to save any of the three break points on his serve, but he broke Mansouri’s serve on five of 11 opportunities.
Seventh-seeded Dominik Koepfer of Germany cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Chile’s Tomas Barrios Vera. Also winning their openers were sixth-seeded Nicolas Jarry of Chile, Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka, Croatia’s Borna Gojo, Australia’s James Duckworth and Taiwanese lucky loser Jason Jung.
