Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella displayed big forehands and perseverance to defeat Canada’s Rebecca Marino in the first round of qualifying today. After winning a close first set tie-break, Minella, the No.1 seed in qualifying, broke ahead in the second to win the match 7-6 6-4.
“I feel I can progress well in this tournament but when it is windy I definitely don’t play my best tennis so it’s really hard. The harder the wind is, the more it doesn’t look like tennis,” Minella said.
Earlier, Columbia’s Mariana Duque-Marino overcame Russia’s Daria Gavrilova, winning 6-3 6-4. Yuxuan Zhang beat Chiara Scholl in three sets 3-6 6-2 6-1, while on the neighbouring court Italy’s Maria Elena Camerin defeated Spain’s Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor 6-2 2-6 6-1. Lauren Davis of the USA overpowered China’s Yue-Yue Hu to win her match 6-4 6-1.
After facing fierce winds later in the afternoon, Garbine Muguruza of Spain executed well-placed drop shots and down-the-line backhands to defeat Slovenia’s Andreja Klepac 6-4 6-3 and No.4 seed Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain played a gruelling 3 setter against Brazil’s Teliana Pereira taking the match 6-2 2-6 7-5.
Qualifying round of 16 will continue tomorrow from 10am.
By Rosie Jones.