Former champion Coco Vandeweghe kicked-off her grass campaign on a winning note after she moved past 20-year-old local wildcard Indy De Vroome to advance to the second round of the Ricoh Open Grass Court Championships that began in s-Hertogenbosch on Monday.
Seeded sixth, Vandeweghe needed just 75 minutes to dispatch off a challenge from her 262nd-ranked counterpart, winning 6-2 6-4. The American powerhouse remained unbroken on her serve throughout the match and dominated on first serve to see herself through the opening hurdle.
Seventh-seeded Eugenie Bouchard of Canada continued the battle with her form as she faced an annihilating 6-2 6-0 thrashing from 171st-ranked Belgian qualifier Elise Mertens. The Canadian star was broke thrice each in both sets en route a 52-minute drubbing here.
The other winners from the draw included unseeded American Madison Brengle, who upset Germany’s fifth seed Laura Siegemund 6-3 3-6 6-2, and Russian qualifier Natalia Vikhlyantseva, who made short work of higher-ranked Czech Denisa Allertova, 6-2 6-1.
QUERREY, MAHUT WIN IN MEN’S SINGLES
In the men’s division, fifth-seeded American Sam Querrey prevailed in a serve-fest against Germany’s Benjamin Becker in two tie-breakers. The duo didn’t stage any break-point opportunity on their respective service games, before the former won 7-6 7-6 in a thrilling encounter.
Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, the No. 8 seed, also went past the opening round following a 6-1 6-4 conquest of Slovak Lukas Lacko. Moving on, Mahut has been scheduled to take on compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu, who beat American Rajeev Ram 6-4 6-4 in the other match up.
Also to progress to the round of 16 were, Aljaz Bedene (defeated Ernesto Escobedo 7-6 6-2), and Stefan Kozlov (defeated Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1 2-6 6-3).
GROTH, BERRER ADVNACE IN STUTTGART
At the ATP Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, big-serving Australian Sam Groth fired 15 aces on his way to clinching a 7-5 6-4 victory against Ukrainian Illya Marchenko. Up next, he squares-off against third seed and French Open semi-finalist Dominic Thiem.
Wildcard-entrant Michael Berrer of Germany also made a victorious start to his crusade after he rallied from a one-set deficit to overcome Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-7 6-2 6-4 in the opening-round clash that went on for almost two hours.
