Mirra Andreeva is into the second round of the Australian Open as she overcame a big test from Donna Vekic to win 4-6 6-3 6-0.
The eighth seed entered this year’s Australian Open as an in-form player having won Adelaide last year and is hoping to replicate Madison Keys’ feat of doing the Adelaide-Melbourne double.
It seemed like it would be a straightforward first match for Andreeva as she was having a lot of success on the Vekic serve.
The former Wimbledon semi-finalist was struggling to hold serve and needed eight minute games to hold her serve.
However, the experience and composure of Vekic saw her win the clutch points as she held her own in the opening set.
The Croatian then stepped up her game when it mattered most and broke in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead.
A comfortable service game closed out the opening set as Andreeva looked frustrated that things were not going her way.
There was good resilience and general tactical play from Andreeva and that didn’t go unrewarded as she broke in the sixth game of the second set with some good variety.
Some confident and consistent tennis saw Andreeva take the second set and levelled this match at one set all.
Andreeva refused to take her foot off the gas as she continued to dominate proceedings in the final set.
The attitude from Vekic was poor as she was too desperate and too erratic to finish points off but the application from Andreeva was precise as she closed out a final set bagel to seal her place in the second round.
Next up for Andreeva will be another big test in the form of Maria Sakkari on Wednesday.
In other results, Jessica Pegula and Amanda Anisimova cruised through while Diana Shnaider edged past Barbora Krejcikova in three tight sets.
