Seventh seed Alize Cornet has started her 2016 Hobart International campaign in convincing style.
The world No.43 moved into the second round with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Czech Denisa Allertova on centre court today.
“It was a good match, a tough one,” Cornet said. “I knew that Denisa is a really good player so I was expecting a tough battle and it was two straight sets, but the score doesn’t reflect the match. It was really tight from the beginning to the end and I’m just happy to be through to the second round.”
Cornet won all six break point opportunities in the 90-minute win. Allertova only converted 44% of her break opportunities, a key difference in the match.
The former world No.11 Frenchwoman served for the match at 5-3, but faltered. She quickly recovered to close out the win.
“I got a little bit tense, I have to work on this part of my game and go for it at the end of the match,” Cornet admitted. “Overall it was a really good match and something I can base myself on for the rest of the tournament.”
Eighth seed Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium is also into the second round. The world No.44 defeated up-and-coming German Carina Witthoeft 6-2 7-6(5).
“It was a difficult match, I think we both didn’t play our best levels but I’m very happy with the win,” the eighth seed said.
Van Uytvanck now meets the winner of tomorrow’s highly anticipated first round showdown between former world No.5 Eugenie Bouchard and the 2011 Hobart International finalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
“I think it’s going to be an interesting match,” Van Uytvanck said. “I’ve played Mattek-Sands already in Wimbledon, she’s a really good player. Bouchard is also very good. It will be interesting and I’m looking forward to it.”
> See tomorrow’s order of play
Russian Margarita Gasparyan won the opening match of the day, defeating Australian wildcard Maddison Inglis 6-4 6-3.
The 17-year-old Inglis made a dream start in her WTA Tour main draw debut, securing an early break but an aggressive-hitting Gasparyan soon found her range and raced to victory.
Australian duo Jarmila Wolfe and Kimberly Birrell gave home fans something to celebrate, winning their first round doubles match against Kateryna Bondarenko and Tatjana Maria 6-4 6-4. Ukrainian sisters Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok, the third seeds, were also winners.