Germany’s Tatjana Maria toppled No. 1 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-4, 6-3 on a day of upsets in the first round of the Lexus Eastbourne Open on Tuesday in England.
Maria finished with an 8-0 edge in aces and won a stellar 24 of 28 first-service points (85.7%). Paolini was one of four seeded players to be knocked out Tuesday, with Australia’s Kimberly Birrell taking down Czech fourth seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-6 (6) and Caty McNally outlasting Indonesian sixth seed Janice Tjen 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in three hours and 10 minutes.
Finally, the Czech Republic’s Sara Bejlek saved a match point in the 12th game of the second set and turned the tables on German fifth seed Laura Siegemund 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3) in three hours and 22 minutes.
No. 2 seed Madison Keys avoided the carnage by handling business against Australian Talia Gibson 6-4, 6-4. Also advancing were Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez, Hungary’s Panna Udvardy, Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Russian Anastasia Zakharova.
Bad Homburg Open
Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania needed just 61 minutes to knock off Czech fifth seed Linda Noskova 6-1, 6-3 in opening-round action in Bad Homburg, Germany.
Ruse smashed 13 aces and saved both break points she faced. In other first-round matches, Emma Navarro edged Germany’s Eva Lys 7-6 (6), 6-3 and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova got past Ann Li 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-1. Navarro will face top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland in the second round.
There were also three Round of 16 matches on tap Tuesday. Ukrainian third seed Elina Svitolina rallied past Russian Liudmila Samsonova 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; No. 6 seed Naomi Osaka of Japan swept Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-3; and China’s Xinyu Wang eased past Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
