The sweltering heat in Brisbane failed to deter third seed Karolina Pliskova as she eased her way past Yania Putintseva 6-3, 6-1, in the first round of the Brisbane International.
Temperatures on the opening day of the tournament reached in excess of 30 Celsius. It was hard to tell how much the temperature took its toll on the Czech following her clinical performance, in which she hit 12 aces and won 22 out of her 24 first service points. Despite the seemingly one-sided performance, the US Open finalist was broken twice in the match by Putintseva.
“I’m very happy to start 2017 with a win. I think I played good today.” –@KaPliskova #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/boeOCkvrng
— WTA (@WTA) January 1, 2017
Pliskova enters 2017 under new guidance after appointing David Kotyza her new coach. Kotyza has previously mentored both Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova. Despite of her strong opening performance in Brisbane, the Czech is eager to seek further improvement.
“There are still few things what I want to improve in the next match. I have a day off tomorrow. I just hit with my coach and try and improve it. Just take it match by match and try to play at least how I was playing today,” said Pliskova.
Eugenie Bouchard failed to win her first match of the new year after suffering a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, defeat to America’s Shelby Rogers. Chances came and went for the former Wimbledon finalist, who only managed to convert 3/12 break points opportunities against Rogers.
Since the US Open, Bouchard has only played five competitive matches on the tour (winning one of those). Evaluating her latest loss in Brisbane, the 22-year-old believes the lack of match play has hindered her performance.
“I definitely feel kind of rusty, out of it … I haven’t won a match in a while. All those thoughts kind of go into your head a little bit when you’re on the court.” Bouchard admitted.
“There is just lots of work to be done. It’s kind of getting used to playing a tennis match again, in a way. I know everyone feels like that at the beginning of the season, but the lack of matches I have played after the US Open makes it more. I just feel it more for my situation.”
Another casualty of the tournament was seventh seed Elena Vesnina. Facing France’s Alize Cornet, the Russian was edged out 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), in a marathon encounter. Vesnina looked set to seal the match in straight sets with a 6-3, 3-0, lead before she began to falter on the court.
1st of january ✔
1st match of the season ✔
1st thriller ✔
1st win ✔ 🎉🎉🎉 !
Welcome to the 2017 season 😁 #BrisbaneInternational #lookingtired pic.twitter.com/mR3dTxdKsd— Alize Cornet (@alizecornet) 1 January 2017
Other victories on the first day of the tournament featured Christine McHale, who breezed past Italy’s Sara Errani 6-3, 6-3. Daria Kasatkina dismissed Irina Begu in what was an identical score to McHale (6-3, 6-3). Finally, Misaki Doi clinched a 90-minute 7-6(1), 6-4, win over Ekaterina Makarova.
