Day 1 of the WTA International event in Acapulco brought 6 matches of the first round. Johanna Konta played her first match since her semifinal run at the first major of the year. Yanina Wickmayer was pushed into a third set tiebreak by local wild card Victoria Rodriguez. Mariana Duque-Marino pulled of the upset over the fifth seed Alison Van Uytvanck, 6-4 in the third. Naomi Osaka and Johanna Larsson got through their opening matches against qualifiers in straight sets. Galina Voskoboeva made a comeback in doubles with Anastasia Rodionova, beating the 4th seeded British team of Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith.
The highest seed that played today was the third seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who faced the Polish Urszula Radwanska. Pavlyuchenkova played a great game, not giving Radwanska any chances in the first set and ‘bageling’ her opponent. After having only one game point in the first set, Radwanska really upped her game and was looking to make a comeback. Unfortunately, at 3-2 she took a misstep, causing her a left ankle injury which then forced her to retire from the match.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – Urszula Radwanska 6-0 2-3 ret. Radwanska
Yanina Wickmayer had a surprisingly difficult match against the Mexican wild card and World No. 246 Victoria Rodriguez. Wickmayer got off to a good start as expected, leading 4-1 over her opponent, however then she won only one point in the next three games and the score read 4-4. Wickmayer then gave Rodiriguez a big advantage of serving for the set, which she however didn’t take well and the first set went into a tiebreak. Both players failed at their service points most of the time, but Rodriguez was the one coming out on top, winning the tiebreak 7-5. The second set was completely in Wickmayer’s hand and only lasted 25 minutes. Rodriguez did not bring her game from the first set and lost the set 0-6. The key game was definitely at 2-0, when Rodriguez was leading 40-0 but still lost the game. She only won 4 more points in the set. Wickmayer continued her winning game streak to 8, but after she lost 5 games without a single game point for Wickmayer. Wickmayer however was not giving up, and managed to take the match back to 5-5. After two more breaks we were into another tiebreak, however this one was more one sided for Wickmayer, who only allowed Rodriguez two points.
Yanina Wickmayer – Victoria Rodriguez 6-7(5) 6-0 7-6(2)
Other results:
Naomi Osaka – Kiki Bertens 6-4 6-2
Johanna Larsson – Maria Sakkari 6-2 6-3
Mariana Duque-Marino – Alison Van Uytvanck 4-6 6-4 6-4
Johanna Konta – Anett Kontaveit 6-3 3-6 6-4
