Last year’s Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek beat US qualifier Madison Brengle 6-3 6-4 after 73 minutes in the opening round at the Adelaide Open.
Swiatek converted all three of her break points. In the opening set the Pole hit 11 winners to 7 unforced errors. Brengle earned an early break in the second set to open up a 3-1 lead, but Swiatek broke back. The 19-year-old player reeled off five of the final six games and closed out the match with a love hold.
Swiatek avenged a 6-1 6-1 defeat against Brengle in their only previous head-to-head match on the ITF Circuit in Charleston in 2018.
“Madison is the kind of player who uses her opponent’s power, so I had to stay cool. I tried to calm myself down, stay low in the legs, and sometimes play longer rallies to get in the rhythm, because the first round, is always tough at any tournament”, said Swiatek.
Swiatek set up a second round match against Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis, who rallied from one set down to beat her compatriot Samantha Stosur 5-7 7-5 6-4 in a marathon match after 2 hours and 46 minutes. Inglis came back from 0-3 down in the third set.
“I could see Sam wasn’t 100% in the third set, so I hope everything is OK with her. It was pretty special to play with Sam. She was my idol growing up and someone I always looked up to, so to be on the same court was a really cool experience”, said Inglis.
Coco Gauff was not able to convert a match point in the second set, before claiming a 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 win over Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
Gauff built up a 6-4 5-3 lead, but she was not able to serve out the match and wasted a match point at 6-4 5-4. Paolini went up a 5-3 lead in the tie-break and held on to close out the second set forcing the match to the decider. Gauff broke serve in the first and fifth games to close out the third set 6-2 after 2 hours and a half. Gauff set up a second round match against Petra Martic from Croatia, who rallied from one set down to beat Russian qualifier Liudmila Samsonova 4-6 6-0 7-5. Samsonova sealed the first set 6-4 with a break in the 10th game. Martic earned three breaks to take a bagel win in the second set and went up a double break to race out to a 4-1 lead. Samsonova pulled both breaks back to draw level to 4-4 before Martic reeled off eight of the final ten points earning a break in the ninth game to win the third set 6-4.
