Czech 19-year-old Linda Noskova fired eight aces and took down No. 8 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Tuesday in Stuttgart, Germany.
Noskova saved 8 of 9 break points while going 5-for-5 on her opportunities to break Ostapenko. It’s already Noskova’s third win over a top 10 opponent this year, including an upset of World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland at the Australian Open.
In a match that took just 46 minutes, Jasmine Paolini dominated fellow Italian Sara Errani and prevailed 6-1, 6-0.
No. 5 seed Qinwen Zheng of China and No. 6 seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic won their first-round matches in straight sets, while Belgian Elise Mertens outlasted Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-1, 4-6, 6-0.
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No. 2 seed Caroline Garcia of France got past Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in first-round action in Rouen, France.
Garcia hit 11 aces and capitalized on eight double faults by her opponent, but she fell behind in the third set and had to win four straight games to rally to victory. No. 1 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia had an easier time in defeating France’s Alice Robbe 6-2, 6-2 in 67 minutes.
No. 3 Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine took down Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 7-5, but it wasn’t all bad for the host country, as French seventh seed Clara Burel rallied past Ukrainian Katarina Zavatska 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Other winners included No. 4 seed Yue Yuan of China, Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic, Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and Elina Avanesyan of Russia.
–Field Level Media REUTERS
