Italian qualifier Camilla Rosatello dug deep to pull out an upset of No. 1 seed Yue Yuan of China, winning 7-6 (7), 1-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem on Monday in Rabat, Morocco.
Rosatello trailed 5-3, 40-30 in the first set before saving 12 set points across the next four games and the ensuing tiebreaker. That tired her out for the second set, but the World No. 294 came back from a 3-2 third-set deficit to pull off the stunner.
No. 2 seed Anna Blinkova of Russia was also shown the door early when Germany’s Laura Siegemund defeated her 6-1, 7-6 (4). No. 6 seed Xiyu Wang of China escaped Italy’s Nuria Brancaccio 7-6 (5), 7-5, while seventh seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto beat Morocco’s Yasmine Kabbaj 6-3, 6-4.
American Peyton Stearns rallied to a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic. Camila Osorio of Colombia, China’s Zhuoxuan Bai and Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska also advanced.
Internationaux de Strasbourg
No. 5 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia survived a three-hour match to dispatch Czech opponent Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the first round in France.
Samsonova hit eight aces and 11 double faults while capitalizing on Krejcikova’s 16 double faults. Krejcikova saved a match point in the second set before forcing and winning the tiebreaker, but Samsonova finally vanquished her on her third match point of the match.
Sixth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia had an easier time in a 6-0, 7-5 win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa. Poland’s Magdalena Frech eliminated Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-3, while another American, Emma Navarro, advanced with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over France’s Alize Cornet.
Fiona Ferro of France, Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, Magda Linette of Poland and Xinyu Wang of China also won their matches. No. 7 seed Elina Sviotlina of Ukraine completed a 6-3, 6-4 win over France’s Diane Parry in a match suspended from Sunday night.
–Field Level Media
