Petra Kvitova was beaten in the first round of the Prague Open on Monday. The Slovak qualifier Rebecca Sramkova took 226th place in the world rankings and surprised the top seeded Czech with 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 36 minutes.
While both players exchanged a few service breaks in the first and third set, Kvitova was the better player in the second set. The world number 10 didn’t have a single breakpoint and broke her opponent once, which helped her win the set and level the match.
However, her inconsistencies piled up again in the last sentence and Sramkova was able to defeat her. This win is Sramkova’s first win on the WTA tour in almost four years (since 2017). In the second round she either plays against Mona Barthel or the Slovak wildcard colleague Viktoria Kuzmova.
Prague Open: Other seeds make it into the 2nd round
The other two seeded players, who opened their Prague Open campaigns on Monday, started with a winning mark. Seventh seeded Nina Stojanovic came back from one set behind and defeated Vitalia Diatchenko 6: 7 (5), 6: 1, 6: 3 in two hours and 30 minutes.
Stojanovic faced nine breakpoints but was only broken once – in the first set. By comparison, she broke Diatchenko on five of the six occasions she had a breakpoint.
In the second round the Serbian plays against Grace Min. Min defeated the Australian wildcard Samantha Stosur with 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the first round. Greet Minnen, seeded ninth, defeated the Italian Giulia Gatto-Monticone 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in her first round match.
The Belgian took an hour and 50 minutes to win. In the second round, Minnen plays either against the lucky loser Anastasia Gasanova from Russia or the Czech wildcard Lucie Havlickova. The American qualifier Asia Muhammad also reached the second round.
Muhammad defeated Australian Lizette Cabrera in the first round 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Muhammad’s closest rival is either Samantha Murray Sharan or eighth seeded Tereza Martincova. Martincova’s compatriot Tereza Smitkova was the last player to move into the second round of the Prague Open on Monday. Smitkova scored a 6-2, 6-2 win over Australian Maddison Inglis. Photo credit: Bulletin Observer
