Lucky loser Bernarda Pera rallied to defeat Spain’s Paula Badosa 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in an upset-filled opening round on Monday at the Adelaide International in Australia.
Pera dropped the opening set and trailed 3-1 in the third set before racing past Badosa, a wild-card entry playing for the first time since Wimbledon due to a stress fracture in her back.
Qualifiers Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anna Kalinskaya of Russia both ousted top-five seeds. Pavlyuchenkova defeated No. 5 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-3, 6-4, and Kalinskaya outlasted No. 4 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. Other winners included Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Ana Bogdan.
Hobart Invitational
Top-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium coasted to a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Danielle Collins in opening-round action in Australia.
No. 3 seed Lin Zhu of China and No. 8 Varvara Gracheva of France also advanced. Zhu was a 7-5, 6-1 winner against Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti and Gracheva held off Peyton Stearns 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-5 despite seven double faults.
Other first-round winners were Australian wild-card entry Daria Saville and Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who will face Mertens next.
–Field Level Media
