Former Roland Garros champion and number 6 seed Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia eased past Paula Badosa 6-2 6-2 after 52 minutes to advance to the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Ostapenko fired 26 winners to 8 unforced errors to avenge her 6-4 6-3 defeat against Badosa in the third round of last year’s Roland Garros. The Latvian player won 66% of her first seve points, dropped just nine points on serve and did not face a break point. She broke Badosa twice in the first and seventh games of the opening set and in the third and seventh games of the second set.
Ostapenko will face either Vera Lapko or qualifier Jaqueline Cristian.
Ostapenko has admitted that Marion Bartoli has returned to her coaching team. The former Wimbledon champion had already provided advice to Ostapenko in late 2019 , when the Latvian reached the Linz final and claimed the Luxemburg title. Bartoli gave birth to her daughter Kamiyla last December.
“Everybody knows that she a baby now. It was tough for her to travel the first couple of months but I always in touch with her, texting and talking. So she was helping me in Dubai and she is going to help me in a couple more tournaments. Maybe not Miami, but after on clay courts”, said Ostapenko.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich came back from one set down to beat Ana Bogdan 2-6 6-2 6-1. Bogdan converted her second break point in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Sasnovich broke back in the third game, but Bogdan got two consecutive breaks to race out to a 5-1 lead.
Sasnovich pulled one break in the seventh game for 2-5 but Bogdan closed out the first set 6-2 with a break in the eighth game. Sasnovich broke twice in the first and fifth game to win the second set 6-2. Sasnovich will play either Daria Kasatkina or fresh Lyon title winner Clara Tauson.
After a trade of breaks in the first two games of the third set, Sasnovich broke three times in a row to win the third set 6-1. Former world number 2 Vera Zvonareva cruised past Arina Rodionova 6-1 6-3. Zvonareva went up a 2-0 lead with a break in the second game. Rodionova broke straight back in the third game at deuce, but Zvonareva got two consecutive breaks in the fourth and sixth games to win the first set 6-1. Rodionova opened up a 3-0 lead with a break in the second game, but Zvonareva reeled off six consecutive games with three breaks to set up a number 3 seed Fiona Ferro.
