WTA: Mladenovic starts sovereign in Linz – Bencic continues horror run

Kristina Mladenovic has reached the second round at the WTA tournament in Linz. The French player beat Harriet Dart from Great Britain 6:3, 6:4. It ended a series of four defeats in a row.

“In the past I have always played in Asia, I don’t really know why,” Mladenovic said after the game. “I enjoyed it very much.”

The current number 48 of the world had a bad start and had to accept a break in her first service game. But with her swift, flat forehand blows, she put increasing pressure on the team and made up for the deficit. After 41 minutes Mladenovic transformed her first set point with an ace.

The 22 year old dart was equipped with a Wild Card by the tournament organizers after Julia Grabher had to cancel due to injury. An agreement with the British Tennis Federation brought the British player her third main field appearance in 2018.

Mladenovic knew how to take the momentum in passage two with him. With a break to 2:1 she made the preliminary decision early. In round two she meets her doubles partner Timea Babos, who Donna Vekic surprisingly defeated clearly in two sets.

“You don’t have many good friends on the tour, but she really is one of them,” said Mladenovic about her next opponent. “We understand each other well even away from the square. We have to make the best of it.”

Tatjana Maria has reached the second round after a hard fight. The German had a hard start with the aggressive play of the Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova and lost the first set 2:6.

Afterwards Maria unpacked her finest tennis again, brought back many balls with her backhand slice and often looked for the way to the net.

The second set went to Maria with the same result, after 0:2 in the deciding set she won six of the next seven games. In round two, there will be a purely German duel: The Mallorca winner will face Julia Görges or Andrea Petkovic.

Belinda Bencic had to admit defeat to Vera Lapko from Belarus. The Swiss, currently number 41 in the world, clearly won the first set 6-1, but then only played one game.

Lapko took advantage of weaknesses on serve, beat some return winners and pulled her opponent’s tooth more and more.

“To be honest, I was wondering about the first set,” Lapko said after the game because she actually felt good. “But then my coach helped me find my way back to the game. He told me to stay calm and keep playing, luckily it got better.”

It was Bencic’s fifth first-round defeat in a row, her last victory she celebrated at the end of August in New Haven, where she reached the quarter-finals. After all, in the early evening she and Barbara Haas managed a success in doubles.

A Bencic compatriot, on the other hand, celebrated a surprise victory. Left-hander Jil Teichmann, who fought her way through qualifying over the weekend, beat Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2 and now faces the number five of the tournament, Camila Giorgi. The Italian eliminated Pauline Parmentier from France.