WTA Stuttgart
Two young guns of tennis issued statements of intent on Tuesday at the star-studded WTA Women’s Stuttgart Open.
Tasked with the tournament’s fifth seed and a former world No 1 (currently No 6) in Ana Ivanovic, France’s 21-year-old world No 29 Caroline Garcia overcame a tough first set and won 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 to reach a last 16 meeting with Carina Witthoft.
Garcia frustratingly reached the finals at the two Mexican stops – Monterrey and Acapulco – on the WTA Tour this year, losing to Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland on both occasions.
Since the second of those tournaments in early March she had scuffled in singles play, losing five of six including Fed Cup matches before a solid victory over Ivanovic on Tuesday.
She was joind in the second round by Spanish world No 20 Garbine Muguruza, also 21, who breezed by world No 23 Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-4.
She draws a much tougher assignment to advance to the quarter-finals in second-seeded world No 3 Simona Halep.
The win comes after Muguruza had fallen to Sara Errani (world No 15) in Miami, Karolina Pliskova (No 12) in Indian Wells, Carla Suarez-Navarro (No 10) in Doha, and Pliskova earlier as well in Dubai in her last four meetings with top opponents.
Her last win against a top-20 player came at the Dubai quarter-finals against Suarez-Navarro in mid-February, before she was beaten by Pliskova in the semis.
Elsewhere on Tuesday Suarez-Navarro went through in three sets against Evgeniya Rodina after losing a second-set tie break, Czech world No 13 Lucie Safarova avanced in straight sets to arrange a last 16 battle with Caroline Wozniacki and world No 8 Ekaterina Makarova dismissed Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
On Wednesday Agnieszka Radwanska and Errani will lock horns, Germany’s world Nos 14 Angelique Kerber (v Yulia Beygelzimer) and 19 Sabine Lisicki (v Zarina Diyas) are in action and Swiss rising teen Belinda Bencic will face German Julia Gorges.
Muguruza and Halep will also square off for a place in the quarters.
ATP Barcelona
Defending champion Kei Nishikori cruised into the third round of the ATP Barcelona Open with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili on Tuesday.
The Japanese top seed was making his season debut on clay but was largely untroubled by the world No 85 as he broke early in each set and faced just one break point on his own serve before sealing victory.
Nishikori will face either Portugal’s Joao Sousa or 15th seed Santiago Giraldo in the last 16 on Thursday.
Second seed Rafael Nadal will begin his quest for a ninth title in Barcelona in a rematch of his quarter-final defeat to Nicolas Almagro last year on Wednesday.
Almagro only had to play three games to book his place in Round 3 as Paolo Lorenzi retired when trailing 0-3 in the first set.
Nadal’s defeat to Almagro last year ended the 14-time grand slam champion’s 41-match winning streak at the tournament stretching back to 2003.
“He is a great player and always a dangerous rival,” Nadal said on Monday.
“I have to play my own game and make it difficult for Nico.”
Seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut and fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo also booked their places in round three with straight sets victories over Thomaz Belluci and Mikhail Kukushkin respectively.
ATP Bucharest
Former world No 8 Janko Tipsarevic will get a chance to prove his comeback is for real against Gilles Simon after reaching the second round of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy on Tuesday.
Tipsarevic will face the top-seeded Frenchman Simon on Thursday after getting past Italian Thoms Fabbiano in straight sets.
He was joined in the second round by seeds Jiri Veseley (No 7) who advanced after winning an 11-9 second-set tie break against Diego Schwartzman, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (No 5), who breezed past Lorenzo Giustino, dropping only two games in the first set, and Simone Bolelli (No 8), who overcame a first-set tie break against Andrey Golubev to win in two.
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