On Tuesday, April 16, the first round matches of the WTA-250 tournament continue in Rouen (France). Five Russians made it to the main draw and two of them played on Monday, April 15. Mirra Andreeva, fifth seed, defeated Argentina’s Nadiya Podoroska, and Polina Kudermetova, Veronica’s younger sister, lost in a bitter fight to former world number one Karolina Pliskova 5:7, 6:1, 5:7 .
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And today two more Russians played their first round matches. Elina Avanesyan, 21 years old, ranked 67th in the WTA ranking, met with Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro (Q), racket number 144 in the world. Previously, the tennis players had already played against each other, and at the WTA-125 tournament in Marbella in 2022, Avanesyan was stronger by 6:3, 5:7, 7:5. This time Elina won again, as before, not without difficulties.
In the first set, Avanesyan immediately took the initiative. The Russian made a break in the first game, and in the third she took another’s serve again, from the fifth break point. In the fourth game, Elina herself defended herself from a break point and, serving for the game at 5:2, unexpectedly encountered difficulties. Avanesyan got a triple set point, missed it, then escaped a break point and ended up converting the fifth set point: 6:2 in 37 minutes.
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But Elina failed in the second game. At first, however, it seemed like she would put the finishing touches on her opponent. But in the first games, Avanesyan did not take advantage of any of the three break points, and in the fourth game, Ferro took someone else’s serve for the first time in the match, 3:1. Having gained the advantage, the Frenchwoman made a second break in the sixth game and then served for the game, taking advantage of a triple set point: 6:1 in 41 minutes. The Russian in this set took only 25% of the points on the second serve (2 of 8), and her opponent took 11 of 15, that is, 73%.
At the beginning of the decisive set, Avanesyan fought off two break points and then took his opponent’s serve for 2:0. After this, the tennis players exchanged breaks and then continued without break points. But at 5:3 Elina could not serve for the match and in the tenth game Fiona equalized the score 5:5. However, this did not break the Russian woman. Avanesyan served clearly in the eleventh game and in the twelfth she took advantage of the first match point in the reception: 6: 2, 1: 6, 7: 5 in 2 hours and 14 minutes.
In the second round, Elina Avanesyan will play against Mirra Andreeva.
Anna Blinkova (8) went on the court with Natalia Stevanovic – the representative of Serbia, who came to the tournament through qualification, is not among the top 200 in the world ranking and is ranked 204. This was their first head-to-head confrontation and Stevanovic won it.
In the first set, Blinkova took someone else’s serve three times, but Stevanovic broke each time. At the same time, the Russian got the chance from her in a tough fight, while the Serbian got the chance from her with relative ease, one of them was even zero. At 6:5, Anna could not serve for the game and in the tiebreaker the nerves of her opponent turned out to be stronger: 7:6 (7:2) in 1 hour and 7 minutes. Blinkova committed four double faults during the set, including one in the tiebreaker.
In the second game, Stevanovic made a break already in the third game, but in the sixth game Blinkova responded by taking advantage of the fourth break point (3:3). After that, Anna won three more games in a row, and in the ninth, serving for the set, she escaped a break point: 6:3 in 57 minutes. In the decisive game, events developed even more dramatically. In the first game, Blinkova missed a break point, and in the second, Stevanovic scored the break (2-0). Then the Serbian went ahead 4-1, but in the seventh game the Russian responded with a break, after which she tied the score, despite another double fault in the game, which was already the tenth, 4-4.
In the eleventh game, already at 5:5, Anna seemed to have made a key break, already zero. But, when serving for the match, the Russian reached a triple match point and missed it, giving away five rallies in a row. In the tiebreak, which was not without a double fault from Blinkova, Stevanovic, as in the first set, was more successful: 7:6 (7:2), 3:6, 7:6 (7:2) in 3 hours. 19 minutes.
And the day’s program will close with the match of the Roland Garros 2021 finalist, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who has the first seed number. She will play against France’s Alice Robb (WC), world number 265. This meeting will begin no earlier than 20:30 Moscow time.
The Rouen tournament will end on April 21. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
