The WTA sand court tournament in Prague continues without German participation. Qualifier Antonia Lottner (Düsseldorf) and Lucky Loser Tamara Korpatsch (Hamburg) missed the quarter-finals of the 250,000 dollar event in the Czech capital. Mona Barthel (Neumünster), who suffered from back problems, had already failed as defending champion in her opening match on Tuesday.
World Rankings 158th Lottner got off to an extremely unfavorable start with 0:6, 6:7 (7:9) against Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu (WTA No. 37) who was seeded in seventh place. In the first race, the 21-year-old scored only twelve points and could not take advantage of two break chances.
Afterwards, however, the 1.85 metre tall Lottner increased and had the chance to equal the sets at 5:4 and his own serve. But in this phase, 29-year-old Buzarnescu showed all her experience. In the tiebreak, Düsseldorf-born Lottner missed a set point at 7:6 and was beaten shortly after after a total playing time of 1:26 hours.
At the same time, Korpatsch lost 4:6, 2:6 against the Italian Camila Giorgi (WTA No. 58) in 1:28 hours on court 1. The Hamburg native, number 151 in the ranking, led 4:3 in the opening set, but could not save the break to the finish. The 22-year-old also got off to a promising start in the second race. But after the 2:1 she could not win a single game.
In the first round of Prague, Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) and Andrea Petkovic (Darmstadt) failed alongside Barthel. The originally top seeded Karolina Pliskova had cancelled her start at her home tournament after her triumph at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Sunday in Stuttgart due to a thigh injury. The world number six from the Czech Republic should have competed against her twin sister Kristyna Pliskova in the first round of the J&T Banka Prague Open.