Coco Gauff began her Bett1 Open campaign with a win over fellow American, Ann Li in their round-of-32 clash on Wednesday. The seventh seed needed an hour and 32 minutes to win 6-2, 7-6(2).
Gauff won 71% of her first-serve points to Li’s 50% and 51% of her second-serve points to the latter’s 45%. Gauff converted three break points on Li’s serve and saved five break points herself. In the second round, Gauff will play Xinyu Wang.
Bett1 Open: Ekaterina Alexandrova exits
Meanwhile, among the second-round matches that were played, second seed Maria Sakkari advanced to the quarter-finals.
The Greek defeated Daria Saville, 6-1, 7-5 in an hour and 30 minutes. Sakkari won 81% of her first-serve points to Saville’s 52% and almost 78% of her second-serve points to the latter’s 48%. Sakkari lost her serve just once in the match but went on convert four break points on the Australian’s serve.
Analysing the match after her win, Sakkari noted, “I think the first set was almost perfect for me. Not many unforced errors, I was very aggressive, (and) I was serving really well. I think that (Saville) stepped up her game, she started playing better… It was a very close second set. I stayed focused when I had to, and I’m very glad (about) the way I played.”
In the quarter-finals, Sakkari will play sixth seed Daria Kasatkina. Kasatkina came from a set down to defeat the Libema Open champion, Ekaterina Alexandrova, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in an hour and 54 minutes.
Fourth seed Karolina Pliskova also needed three sets to get past Bianca Andreescu in their round-of-16 clash. The Czech needed two hours and 11 minutes to claim a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(7) win and will next play the winner of the Wang-Gauff clash.
Lastly, Aliaksandra Sasnovich also moved the quarters of the Bett1 Open. Sasnovich got past Andrea Petkovic, 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes. She will play either the top-seeded Ons Jabeur or Alycia Parks next.