Alizé Cornet beat Mona Barthel 6-3 7-5 to reach the Round of 16 of the Ladies Trophy in St. Petersburg for the second consecutive year.
Cornet went up a 4-0 lead en route to winning the first set 6-3. Barthel went up a 2-0 lead in the second set but Cornet reeled off four consecutive games. The French player, who reached the third round at the Australian Open, served out on her second match point, when Barthel hit her crosscourt return wide.
Cornet will take on either number 8 seed Daria Kasatkina or qualifier Viktoria Kuzmova to advance to the second quarter final of the season after losing to eventual finalist Aliaksandra Sasnovich in Brisbane.
Katerina Siniakova edged past Donna Vekic 6-3 2-6 6-4. Siniakova dropped serve in the third game to trail 1-2 in the opening set but got two consecutive breaks. She fended off a break point in the seventh game with a volley and closed out the opening set with a first serve.
Vekic earned a break in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead and sealed the second set with a double break, as Siniakova hit a forehand down the line long. In the decisive set Siniakova won a 13-shot rally and closed out the match with a two-handed backhand volley to set up a Round of 16 match against either Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova or Ekaterina Makarova. Siniakova, who finished runner-up in Shenzhen earlier this year, leads 3-0 in her head-to-head matches against Vekic.
Roberta Vinci, who won the biggest title of her career in St. Petersburg in 2016 to break into the top 10 for the first time in her career, beat Heather Watson, Danka Kovinic and Andrea Petkovic to get through the qualifying round and reach the main draw.
Vinci edged world number 101 Andrea Petkovic 6-1 4-6 6-3 to score her third win in for head-to-head matches against the German player. Vinci will face another qualifier Tereza Martinkova for the first time in her career.
Vinci will end her career next May at the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome.
“I like the atmosphere and the tournament as a whole. In general, great people work here. They always treat me very well and remember me. I decided to participate in this tournament because I really wanted to play here for the last time. This is a very beautiful city. There are many places to visit. In general I had a lot of good moments here. I spent wonderful weeks and played great matches. The tournament will definitely remain in my memory”, said Vinci.
Anastasia Potapva, winner of the 2016 Wimbledon Junior title, beat Tatiana Maria 6-2 6-4 to score her first win in a main draw in a WTA tournament. The 16-year-old player will face fresh Australian Open champion and world number 1 player Caroline Wozniacki. The other top seeds are Jelena Ostapenko, Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. The most interesting first roun match will be Petra Kvitova vs Elena Vesnina and Julia Goerges vs Maria Sakkari.
