Defending champion Alison Riske has suffered a 6-3, 6-3, defeat to Hungary’s Timea Babos in the second round of the WTA Tianjin Open.
The seventh seed encountered her first problem in the fourth game of the match as she was broken by her 22-year-old Hungarian opponent. The break was pivotal for the outcome of the opening set as Riske was unable to break back, despite having three opportunities in two separate games to do so.
After dropping the first set, Riske was broken at the start of the second with Babos cruising ahead to 2-0. The American however, kept herself within contention by breaking Babos for the first time to level proceedings at 2-2 before moving ahead for the first time in the match. The efforts from Riske was short lived as Babos dominated the remainder of the match by winning four consecutive games to move into the quarterfinals of the tournament. Babos will now play in her first WTA quarterfinal since May.
There was better news for French fifth seed Kristina Mladenovic who struggled past Poland’s Urszula Radwańska 6-4, 6-4. After taking the first set, Mladenovic trailed 0-4 in the second before winning six consecutive games to seal the win with her fifth match point. In the last eight Mladenovic will face Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski. Jovanovski eased past Russia’s Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-1.
Mladenovic has played Jovanovski twice in her career with their most recent encounter occurring in the second round of this year’s US Open. In their US Open match the world No.27 brushed the Serbian aside 7-5, 6-1.
