Alycia Parks outlasted alternate Varvara Lepchenko to win an all-American battle 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 in opening-round action at the Guadalajara Open on Sunday in Mexico.
Parks was originally scheduled to face Egypt’s Mayar Sherif before she withdrew for an undisclosed reason and was replaced by Lepchenko. Parks overcame an erratic service performance where she hit just 44.2% (38 of 86) of her first serves and had 16 double faults with 10 aces. She rallied from a 3-5 deficit in the deciding set by winning the final four games. Parks will next face No. 3 seed Czech Sara Bejlek, who had a first-round bye.
Hungary’s Panna Udvardy also needed three sets to survive a tough test from France’s Lois Boisson 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2. Udvardy saved all three break points she faced in the final set, while converting two of three on Boisson’s serve.
Udvardy will next face sixth-seeded Spaniard Cristina Bucsa, who swept Canada’s Bianca Andreescu 6-4, 6-3 in the final match of the day. No. 5 seed Janice Tjen of Indonesia also began with a straight-sets win, beating Darja Vidmanova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Peyton Stearns swept Colombia’s Emiliana Arango 6-3, 6-2, setting up a second-round match with No. 4 seed Diane Parry of France.
–Field Level Media
