Third seed Yulia Putintseva opened her Hungarian Grand Prix campaign with a win on Tuesday. The Kazakh, who’s defending her title in the WTA 250 event this year, beat Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova in the first round, 6-4, 6-1 in an hour and 37 minutes.
Putintseva won 62% of her first-serve points to Schmiedlova’s 41% and 40% of her second-serve points to the latter’s 30%. She saved 11 of the 14 break points she faced while converting six of the eight break points that came her way on the Slovakian’s serve.
In the second round, Putintseva will play Brazilian lucky loser, Laura Pigossi. Pigossi beat Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson, 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 42 minutes.
Hungarian Grand Prix: Home favourites exit en masse
Hungarians in the draw had a tough day with almost everyone crashing out in the opening round.
Second seed Martina Trevisan had a slow start against Hungarian wildcard, Natalia Szabanin before the Italian fought back to clinch a comeback, 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 win in an hour and 38 minutes. Trevisan won 64% of her first-serve and 45% of her second-serve points to Szabanin’s 44% and 37% respectively. Both players also struggled to save break points with Trevisan getting broken four of five times and Szabanin dropping her serve seven times (of the nine break points she faced).
Trevisan will play Kateryna Baindl next.
In another Hungarian-Italian encounter, Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto beat Reka Luca Jani, 7-6(7), 6-2 in two hours and two minutes. Cocciaretto will play either Katerina Siniakova or fourth seed Anhelina Kalinina next.
Romanian Ana Bogdan defeated Panna Udvardy 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in two hours and four minutes in their round-of-32 clash. Bogdan will play either top seed Barbora Krejcikova or Xiyu Wang next.
Greek qualifier Despina Papamichail defeated Dalma Galfi, 7-6(4), 6-3 in an hour and 41 minutes. Papamichail will play Galfi’s compatriot and the lone Hungarian left in the draw, Anna Bondar in the second round. The ninth-seeded Bondar defeated Czech qualifier, Jesika Maleckova, 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 42 minutes.
Lastly, Aliaksandra Krunic also made her way to the second round of the Hungarian Grand Prix with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Laura Siegemund. The Serbian will play either Ekaterine Gorgodze or sixth seed Shuai Zhang next.