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No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, the reigning
French Open and U.S. Open champion, routed Canada's Leylah
Fernandez 6-1, 6-1, and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the
reigning Australian Open champion, demolished the United States'
Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-1.
Swiatek was on court for 72 minutes three days after capturing
the Qatar TotalEnergies Open championship in Doha. Sabalenka
completed her day's work in 59 minutes.
Third-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States, who lost to
Swiatek in the Doha final, got past Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova
6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in the second round at Dubai.
American Madison Keys upset fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia of
France 7-5, 6-4. Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic crushed
sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-2, and the Czech
Republic's Barbora Krejcikova knocked out seventh-seeded Daria
Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
Fifth-seeded Coco Gauff of the United States, eighth-seeded
Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of
Kazakhstan, 12th-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic,
13th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 14th-seeded Liudmila
Samsonova of Russia and 15th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus
all advanced to the third round.
Merida Open Akron
Sloane Stephens finally won a match to open her fourth
tournament of 2023, as the second-seeded American defeated
French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-3 in the first round at
Merida, Mexico.
Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, had lost her first-round
matches at Auckland, New Zealand; Hobart, Australia; and the
Australian Open to begin the year. Against Jeanjean, she saved
both of the break points she faced and converted four of her
five break opportunities.
Top-seeded Magda Linette of Poland came from behind to beat
Camila Osorio of Colombia 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-2.
Also moving on to the second round were fourth-seeded Katerina
Siniakova of the Czech Republic, fifth-seeded Alycia Parks of
the United States, Xinyu Wang of China, Varvara Gracheva of
Russia and Panna Udvardy of Hungary and Swedish qualifier
Rebecca Peterson.
--Field Level Media
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