Russia’s Varvara Gracheva earned consecutive service breaks late in the third set to pull out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over top-seeded Magda Linette of Poland on Tuesday in the first round of the ATX Open in Austin, Texas.
Gracheva converted her fifth break point of the game to go up 5-3 in the third set, but Linette immediately broke back to extend the match. Gracheva closed out the victory in the next game, converting the sixth of her 12 break-point opportunities in the contest.
The other seeded players in action all advanced. No. 3 Anastasia Potapova of Russia routed the United States’ Elizabeth Mandlik 6-2, 6-0. No. 5 Sloane Stephens won an all-U.S. matchup with Taylor Townsend 6-3, 6-3, and No. 4 Danielle Collins of the United States downed Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-7 (7), 6-2, 6-4. No. 8 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine ousted Hungary’s Dalma Galfi 7-5, 6-1.
Also moving on were Russia’s Erika Andreeva and Anna Kalinskaya, Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam and the United States’ Madison Brengle, Coco Vandeweghe and Caty McNally.
Abierto GNP Seguros
Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova saved a match point in the third set en route to a 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (5) upset of sixth-seeded Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in first-round action at Monterrey, Mexico.
Rakhimova was down 4-5, 30-40 in the final set before winning the next three points to prolong the match. The subsequent tiebreaker saw the server lose seven of the 12 points, including Siniakova dropping the last point.
Top-seeded Caroline Garcia of France defeated Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan 6-3, 6-4, and third-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia, fourth-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium, seventh-seeded Mayar Sherif of Egypt and eighth-seeded Elisabetta Cocciaretto also moved on.
Other Tuesday winners were Germany’s Tatjana Maria, Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz, China’s Xinyu Wang, the United States’ Emma Navarro and Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
–Field Level Media
