Errani moves into second round at Guadalajara 125K
GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- Former World No.5 and 2012 French Open finalist Sara Errani of Italy claimed an upset in the first round of the Abierto Zapopan, a WTA 125K Series event, by eliminating No.4 seed Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, 6-3, 7-6(6).
Errani, a nine-time singles titlist on the WTA, is down to No.234 in the rankings and opened the 2019 season with a 1-4 win-loss record. But the Italian was able to notch her second win of the year by beating Begu, improving her spotless career record against the Romanian to 3-0, with all of those wins coming in straight sets.
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The server was regularly in danger in the match as Errani and Begu combined for 16 service breaks -- in fact, all but one game went against serve in the first set. But Errani was steely enough to come back from a 2-5 deficit in the second set, eventually clinching the tiebreak after one hour and 37 minutes of play.
In other results, No.3 seed Tatjana Maria of Germany joined Errani in the second round after her opening-round opponent, Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, retired during their match with the German leading 6-2, 4-4. Maria, one of the young mothers on tour, won her first WTA title on the grass courts of Mallorca last season.
More upsets of seeded players occurred on Tuesday, as Russia's Anna Blinkova surprised her 5th-seeded compatriot Evgeniya Rodina, 6-2, 6-4, and Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic defeated No.6 seed Lara Arruabarrena of Spain, 6-4, 6-4.
No.8 seed Magda Linette of Poland avoided the upset bug, as she beat Serbian qualifier Natalija Kostic, 6-1, 6-3 in one hour.
Additionally, Japan's Nao Hibino ousted Heather Watson of Great Britain, 6-4, 6-1, Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia took out Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina, 6-1, 2-6, 6-0, and Russia's Veronika Kudermetova outlasted Ukrainian lucky loser Katarina Zavatska, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
