The top two seeds started their journey yesterday in Acapulco with struggles and it took them 3 sets to get through their matches against unseeded players. Cibulkova took care of a curiosity against Lourdes Dominguez Lino in the battle of two players under 165 cm. Not only did Cibulkova not allow Dominiguez Lino to win a single game, she did not give her any game points. McHale has played the longest match of the day at 2 hours and 27 minutes against Heather Watson. The only other seed in action yesterday was the seventh seed Danka Kovinic, winning over Tatjana Maria.
Victoria Azarenka, the headliner and the first seed of this tournament started her campaign against the Slovenian, Polona Hercog. Azarenka started with a quite poor service performance, winning only 46% of the points on her serve. There was a crazy streak of 5 breaks in a row between 1-1 and 3-4, especially considering that both players over taller than 180 cm. Azarenka got 15-40 on her serve at 3-5, but managed to save these two set points, only for Hercog to serve out and win the set 6-4. Second set was the complete opposite of the first, with only one break of serve happening. Azarenka was completely reborn on serve, losing only three points on her serve and winning 3 clean games, including at 5-3 when she was serving for the set. Azarenka kept on performing incredibly on serve throughout the third set, losing only two points. Hercog’s service games got really bad, as she had the horrendous stats of 33% of first serves in and 13% of points won on her second serve. Azarenka kept focused and ended the match with a clean break of Hercog’s serve. In the second round, the former World No. 1 will face Dominika Cibulkova.
Victoria Azarenka – Polona Hercog 4-6 6-3 6-1
The second seeded American Sloane Stephens also played her first match yesterday. Her opponent was another American, Louisa Chirico who successfully got through qualification for this tournament. She started off very strong after a difficult first game on her serve, she managed to break her opponent. After that, Stephens had a strong 0-40 lead on Chirico, but she failed to capitalize on what turned out to be her only break points in the first set. Chirico broke Stephens again in the next game and got to a great lead of 5-0. Stephens was not giving up, won her first game and then saved 3 set points in the next, but the 4th was the charm for Chirico.
After two early breaks in the second set, both players were holding their serves, which was very impressive to see from Stephens. The next break came at 3-4, when it looked like business as usual from Chirico, leading 40-15, but Stephens got back and after the third break point, she was serving for the set. Leading 40-0, Stephens started to struggle and the scored read deuce and three wasted set points. However she did manage to keep it together and took her 4th set point. Stephens took an early lead of 2-0 after two clean games, but lost it at her next service game, making it 2-2. Stephens from then took two breaks to lead 5-2 and serve for the match, but the pressure overwhelmed her and after two unused match points, she lost her serve. However she kept on it and ended the match on Chirico’s serve.
Sloane Stephens – Louisa Chirico 1-6 6-3 6-3
