The Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, second seeded, beat the American Ann Li in two straight sets 6-4 and 6-4 on Tuesday and went on to the third round of the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic. Tunisian Ons Jabeur, sixth seed, and Belgian Elise Mertens, seventh, also made it through the second round with two wins.
Muguruza said the windy conditions were challenging during her win over the 21-year-old American, who fought for an hour and a half that lasted the match. “It was a difficult game just because (Chicago) is a windy city, or the city of the wind when evaluating the development of the game,” Muguruza said. “Just controlling the mindset and not getting too frustrated because it’s difficult to play under those conditions.” Muguruza acknowledged that the tight score honored the level playing field. “I think the match was very even due to the circumstances, but I am happy to have kept calm at 5-4, serving in every set, and I managed to close them.”
Muguruza’s next opponent, in the round of 16, will be the winner of the second round match tomorrow, Wednesday, the Belarusian veteran Victoria Azarenka, fourteenth classified, against the American Hailey Baptiste, the 150th in the world.
Jabeur It took just 46 minutes to easily beat the Taiwanese Hseih Su-Wei 6-1 and 6-0, who in the first round had been the executioner of the former world number one, the Belgian Kim Clijsters, while Mertens, seventh seed, won 6-1 and 6-3 against the Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, number 72 in the world, who will rival the American Danielle Collins, eleventh favorite, who beat 4-6, 6-3 and 7-5 to the Japanese Misaki Doi. Another seed that reached the second round was the Estonian Anett Kontaveit, eleventh seeded, next to the Romanian Elena-Gabriela Rus, which gave the surprise of the day by defeating the Italian Camila Giorgi, fifteenth seeded, 6-4, 6-2.
In doubles, the pair formed by the Poles Magdalena Frech and Katarzyna Kawa defeated the Belgian couple of Clijsters and Kirsten Flipkens 6-4 and 6-2. Clijsters, a former world number and the 2009 and 2010 U.S. Open champion, was knocked out of the singles draw in a three-set loss on Monday, her first WTA Tour match since a first-round loss at the U.S. Open. from last year.