Ekaterina Alexadrova reached the second round of the VTB Kremlin Cup after Ons Jabeur was forced to retire, when she trailing 6-1 1-0. Alexandrova has scored the fifth top 10 win of her career.
Alexandrova entered the match with a 4-1 lead in her head-to-head matches against Jabeur. The Tunisian player made her top 10 debut, becoming the first Arab to reach the top 10 of either the women’s or men’s professional rankings. Jabeur is currently ninth in the Race to the WTA Finals.
Alexandrova hit a return winner to earn the first break of the match at 3-1 before saving four break points in the next game to hold serve for 4-1.
Alexandrova went up a double break and closed ou the first set 6-1 with her fifth ace. The Russian player earned an early break in the first game of the second set, before Jabeur withdrew from the match. Alexandrova set up a second round match against Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.
Anett Kontaveit beat Katerina Siniakova 6-3 6-3 after 1 hour and 13 minutes securing her spot in the second round. Kontaveit has continued her good period of form after winning two WTA titles in Cleveland and Ostrava. The Estonian player reached the quarter final after beating defending champion Bianca Andreescu. Tereza Martincova cruised past Romanian lucky loser Irina Bara 6-0 7-5 after 1 hour and 19 minutes. Martincova set up a second round match against second seed Garbine Muguruza.
