Clara Tauson of Denmark cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 upset of No. 2 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the first round of Tennis in the Land on Monday in Cleveland.
Tauson, ranked 90th in the world, hit six aces with one double fault while her opponent had one ace and six double faults. Tauson won 22 of her 27 first-service points (81.5 percent) and broke Krejcikova’s serve four times in six opportunities.
No. 1 seed Caroline Garcia of France easily avoided the same fate as Krejcikova. Garcia needed just 66 minutes to beat Czech foe Linda Fruhvirtova 6-3, 6-2.
No. 11 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy, who reached the quarterfinals of last week’s Western & Southern Open, beat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-3.
Others to advance include Russia’s Mirra Andreeva, Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain, Peyton Stearns, China’s Xinyu Wang, Julia Grabher of Austria and Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
In the night matches, ninth seed Sloane Stephens rebounded from a tough first set to defeat fellow American Lauren Davis 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in just over two hours.
No. 3 seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia also bounced back after losing the first set en route to a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Nadia Podoroska of Argentina.
Anhelina Kalinina, the No. 5 seed from Ukraine, had no trouble dispatching Romania’s Ana Bogdan 6-2, 6-2.
Venus Williams, who was set to play on a wild-card entry, withdrew Sunday due to a recurring knee injury.
–Field Level Media
