Blinkova beats Wozniacki in San Diego; Fernandez retires with injury

No.51 Anna Blinkova

View Profile engineered yet another remarkable comeback, coming from a set and a break down to defeat former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki

View Profile 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Cymbiotika San Diego Open. Blinkova lost eight of the first nine games of the match before turning the tables on Wozniacki. 

"It was a crazy match," Blinkova said on court. "She started really well. She was outplaying me, she was much better than me in the first set. I couldn't find solutions and I was down a set and 2-0. But I was just telling myself not to give up." 

The victory is Blinkova's second notable comeback this season. In January, the 25-year-old saved six match points to defeat World No.4 Elena Rybakina

View Profile 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(20) in the longest tiebreak in Grand Slam history. 

"It's never too late to come back. I was thinking positively and fighting for every point. I was telling myself, you put all the balls in the court as much as you can, and I started to find my shots. I started to find the control." 

Playing in her first tournament since the Australian Open, Wozniacki looked in complete control of the match through the first hour. She struck nine winners to just four unforced errors in a near-perfect opening set and broke immediately to start the second. Blinkova stormed back with her aggressive baseline play to earn a chance to serve out the second set at 5-3, but double-faulted to hand back her break lead. But Wozniacki was broken for a third time in the set and Blinkova forced the decider and raced away with the win.

Blinkova finished the match with 34 winners to 37 unforced errors. Wozniacki struck 22 winners to 32 unforced errors, with 28 of those errors coming in the last two sets.

Blinkova will face Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska

View Profile in the second round. Yastremska outlasted Caroline Dolehide

View Profile 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in her opener.

Tatjana Maria

View Profile advanced to the second round of the San Diego Open after No.8 seed Leylah Fernandez

View Profile retired from their Tuesday match due to a left shoulder injury.

Fernandez won an 82-minute first set 7-6(7), but the Canadian took an immediate medical time-out after capturing the grueling opening frame. World No.47 Maria leapt out to a 4-0 lead in the ensuing second set, at which point 32nd-ranked Fernandez ended the clash.

Making her San Diego tournament debut, German No.1 Maria will now face qualifier Daria Saville

View Profile in the next round. Maria beat former Top 20 player Saville in their only previous meeting, which came at WTA 125 Barranquilla last year.

Also on Tuesday, Australian 18-year-old Taylah Preston

View Profile notched the first Hologic WTA Tour main-draw win of her career by beating 42nd-ranked Magdalena Frech

View Profile 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. World No.153 Preston is on the rise, having reached the final at WTA 125 Puerto Vallarta just last week.

Highlights: Yastremska def. Dolehide

In other Tuesday results, No.7 seed Donna Vekic

View Profile defeated wild card Katherine Hui 7-5, 6-2, and Katerina Siniakova

View Profile beat Mai Hontama

View Profile 6-3, 6-1.