Seventh seed Pauline Parmentier and eighth seed Polona Hercog both won their opening matches in Bucharest on Monday, helping send Romanians to an 0-3 mark on the first day of main draw play on the clay.
Parmentier overcame Alexandra Dulgheru despite an ugly first set loss, while Hercog also came from behind to defeat Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who nearly shocked Agniezka Radwanska at Wimbledon, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Hercog, ranked 90th in the world, broke Ruse’s serve on all four occasions in the second set, then won six straight games after falling behind 3-0 in the final set. That added up to a remarkable seven breaks of Ruse’s serve in the final two sets, a number that helped the seeded Hercog overcome woeful serving of her own in the opening frame.
Her 48 percent first serve winning percentage in the first set was a far cry from her play in the final games, when a poor Ruse forehand put Hercog up 5-3. That sequence repeated itself on match point a game later, sending the Slovenian on to the second round.
Parmentier, meanwhile, brushed aside an ugly opening frame in her 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Dulgheru. The 32-year-old Frenchwoman responded from an emphatic first set defeat with an even more emphatic win of her own, punctuated by a powerful overhead smash on set point as she backpedaled on the soft dirt.
The world No. 65, who won on clay in Istanbul this spring, won 73 percent of first serve points and saved six of nine break points she faced. She displayed her veteran prowess by coming back from a break down early in the third set, winning the last four games — breaking Dulgheru on consecutive occasions, first to level the set and then to win the match — after nearly two hours of play.
That sets up a second round affair with China’s Wang Yafan, who beat another Romanian in Miriam Bulgaru. The world No. 84 was barely troubled in her 6-1, 6-3 victory, aided by eight double faults and a 48 percent first serve percentage from the Romanian. Wang recorded a tour level victory for the first time since reaching the round of 16 in Miami in March.
The home crowd in Bucharest can hope for better success on Tuesday, as four ranked Romanians, including Mihaela Buzarnescu and Irina-Camelia Begu, will fill the center court schedule. Top seed Anastasija Sevastova will also open her campaign.
Across the continent in Gstaad, Marketa Vondrousova knocked off No. 6 seed Lara Arruabarrena 6-3, 6-3 in just two minutes over an hour. Arruabarrena won a paltry 41 percent of first serve points and saved a similarly putrid two of seven break points.
