Williams, 39, lost to Coco Gauff in the first
round of the Australian Open last month, and she fell to
Slovenia's Kaja Juvan last week in Acapulco, Mexico.
Schmiedlova, 25, has been slowed in recent months by injuries.
She hadn't won a main-draw WTA tournament match since June,
though she did post two Fed Cup victories earlier this month.
Meanwhile, fifth-seeded Sloane Stephens finally earned her first
victory of 2020 in her fifth attempt. In an all-United States
matchup, Stephens defeated 497th-ranked Emma Navarro 6-4, 5-7,
6-1.
Other first-round winners in Monterrey included sixth-seeded
Rebecca Peterson of Sweden, eight-seeded Yafan Wang of China,
ninth-seeded Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, Astra Sharma
of Australia and Olga Govortsova of Belarus.
Open 6eme Sens
Third-seeded Caroline Garcia of France survived a tough
first-round challenge in Lyon, France, beating Belgium's Greet
Minnen 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5).
Garcia had two chances to close the match on Minnen's serve at
6-5 in the third set, but Minnen saved both break points. Garcia
eventually won the final-set tiebreaker. Minnen faced a whopping
18 break points in the match but saved 16 of them.
Two Belgians -- fifth-seeded Alison Van Uytvanck and Ysaline
Bonaventure -- along with Romanians Irina Bara and Jaqueline
Cristian, joined fourth-seeded Alize Cornet of France and
Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany in reaching the second round.
-Field Level Media
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|