Sara Errani has suffered a blow ahead of the French Open after losing 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, to Monica Puig in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
The world No.18 started the match in a positive fashion by breaking her opponent four times to seal the opening set after 41 minutes of play. Despite the positive start, the Italian struggled to maintain her lead as she failed to win more than half of her service points (47% winning rate). The vulnerability in Errani’s game allowed Puig to dominate the rest of the match as the world No.51 sealed the upset after an hour and 47 minutes of play.
Strasburg is the third consecutive tournament where Errani has lost in the first round after Madrid and Rome. She will now have to produce a good run in next week’s French Open to avoid falling outside the top-20. Last year Errani reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros before losing to Serena Williams.
Puig, who won her first WTA title at the Strasburg event in 2014, will play French lucky loser Virginie Razzano in the second round. Razzano defeated Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-3, in her first round match.
There was better news for third seed and defending champion Samantha Stosur as she bids to win her fourth WTA title on clay. The 32-year-old produced 10 aces during her 6-3, 7-5, first round win over Lauren Davis. In the last 16 Stosur will play Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei. Former doubles world No.1 Su-Wei brushed aside Chinese qualifier Xu Yifan 6-3, 6-1, in her opening match.
Timea Babos required only 63 minutes on the court to see off Olga Govortsova 6-4, 6-1. The eighth seed was broken twice during the first set before battling back against the Belarusian. Next up for Babos will be Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. Lucic-Baroni, who last reached a WTA Final on clay at the 1998 Croatian Open, defeated China’s Wang Qiang 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.
Matches at the tournament has been suspended due to heavy rain. This year is the 30th edition of the French tournament. Past winners include Jana Novotna (1989), Steffi Graf (1997), Maria Sharapova (2010) and Francesca Schiavone (2012).
