Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine upset No. 8 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 on the first day of the Internationaux de Strasbourg on Sunday in France.
Kalinina won 65.5 percent of her first-service points (38 of 58) and nearly half her first-return points (27 of 55) in the two-hour, 37-minute match. Pavlyuchenkova had a 6-2 edge in aces but also committed nine double faults to Kalinina’s three.
Canadian Leylah Fernandez charged back to defeat Anastasia Potapova of Russia 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in a similarly long match (two hours, 41 minutes). France’s Clara Burel also used three sets to defeat Czech opponent Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 0-6, 6-1.
No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine led France’s Diane Parry 6-3, 4-2 when play was suspended due to darkness.
Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem
No. 3 seed Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain opened with a breezy 6-2, 6-0 victory over Great Britain’s Harriet Dart in the first round in Rabat, Morocco.
Sorribes Tormo trailed 2-1 in the first set before winning 11 in a row to close the match. The Spaniard saved 4 of 6 break points while converting 7 of 9 chances to break Dart’s serve.
The only other match on the docket ended early when Taylor Townsend retired while down 2-0 to Russian Kamilla Rakhimova.
–Field Level Media
