Samantha Stosur made hard work of a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 win over Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in the opening round of the Gastein Ladies on Tuesday.
The 23rd-ranked Australian, who is seeded second, dropped her opening service game, but reeled off four straight games from 2-4 down. Sevastova broke again in the opening game of the second set and held on to take it before Stosur dominated the final set.
Sevastova, who came out of retirement this season, had beaten Stosur in their only previous match at the China Open in 2010, when Stosur was ranked seventh.
Former champion Julia Goerges defeated Risa Ozaki of Japan 6-3, 6-4. The sixth-seeded German, who won the clay-court event in 2010, missed a match point at 5-3 in the second set and needed three more chances to close out the victory in the next game.
Goerges is to play Daria Kasatkina of Russia, who beat Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-3, 6-1.
Karin Knapp saved three match points against Tamira Paszek of Austria before sealing a 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6) win. The third-seeded Italian conceded just five points in the opening set, but missed two match points in the second. She was 4-5, 0-40 down in the final set before winning the tiebreaker on her fifth match point.
Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic rallied to upset fourth-seeded Carina Witthoeft of Germany 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4. The match had been interrupted because of rain on Monday at 5-5 in the second set.
Fifth-seeded Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, a five-time doubles champion in Bad Gastein, advanced to the second round after a 6-4, 6-1 win over Lara Arruabarrena of Spain.
Andreea Mitu of Romania saved two match points before beating Austrian wild-card Barbara Haas 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5). Other first-round winners included Polona Hercog of Slovenia, Maryna Zanevska of Ukraine, Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands and Annika Beck of Germany.
CROATIA OPEN
Croatia’s Borna Coric beat Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-3 in hot and humid conditions on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Croatia Open.
Seventh-seeded Coric felt at home with the weather, converting four out of 11 break points and scoring 35 winners to defeat his Spanish opponent.
“Conditions were very tough, but I like to play when it’s like this, when the ball and court is slow, so I have more time,” Coric said.
He next faces Britain’s Aljaz Bedene.
Sixth-seeded Phillip Kohlschreiber of Germany also advanced after saving five break points to beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-3, 6-2.
Kohlschreiber started slowly and faced two break points before stepping up his game at 3-3 in the first set and going on to win five games in a row.
Eighth-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovakia had to dig deep to defeat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (8/10), 6-1.
Both Klizan and Busta exchanged breaks in the middle of the first set before the Slovakian prevailed in the tiebreaker.
Neither player was broken in the second set, with Carreno Busta winning the tiebreaker on his fourth set point.
Klizan made the stronger start to the final set, winning the four opening games before sealing victory.
In other first-round matches, Bastian Trinker of Austria came from a set down to defeat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and Paolo Lorenzi also rallied to beat fellow Italian Matteo Trevisan 1-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria, Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur and Portugal’s Joao Sousa also advanced to the second round.
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