Pereira started well, taking the first set 6-3. She had many break points, at least one in every service game of Pella. Pereira broke her opponent twice. Pella broke back after the first break, but Pereira managed to break her opponent to lead 4-2. She then had a set point at 5-2, but eventually served the set out a game later. Pella played better in the second set, and there once again was a stretch of 3 breaks in the row, but this time it was in Pella’s favour. She took the second set 6-3. There were 4 breaks in the final set, a break and an immediate response at 1-1. Pella then broke at 3-3. When serving the match out at 5-4, she did not succeed and got broken in a straight game to 5-5. Pella did not lose her serve a single time in the tiebreak, broke her opponent twice and took advantage of the second match point to pull of the upset.
The first seed and overwhelming favorite in the tournament Elina Svitolina was in action today as well, but she didn’t finish her match against Alexandra Panova. Svitolina lost the first set 5-7, but she has the lead of 5-1 in the second. Her match will be resumed on Wednesday not before 11:30 AM of local time.
The duo of American seeded players, Irina Falconi and Anna Tatishvili also got through their first round matches. The 5th seed Falconi defeated the 15-year-old Emiliana Arango 6-0 6-1. This match lasted only 45 minutes. Arango is No. 50 in the ITF Juniors rankings and this was her first match of a WTA level.
Tatishvili, the seed No. 8, faced Ipek Soylu of Turkey, the World No. 174. Coming into this match, Soylu had the lead in their head-to-head, winning their only meeting in Istanbul last year, when Tatishvili had to retire from their match in the third set. This time Tatishvili was the winner. She won 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 19 minutes.
Tatjana Maria, the World No. 105 and the 6th seed in this tournament also had a good opening match. Maria started her campaign by defeating Marina Melnikova of Russia in straight sets, 6-1 6-3 in just an hour and 3 minutes. Maria is also the first seed in doubles, playing with Lara Arruabarrena.
