Azarenka to Play Kvitova After Beating Gasparyan

St Petersburg, Jan 30 (AP) Victoria Azarenka set up a meeting with Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Tuesday after a sometimes-shaky 6-4 6-1 win over Russian qualifier Margarita Gasparyan.

Azarenka, herself a two-time Australian Open champion, struggled on serve at times and gave up three breaks to Gasparyan. However, the Belarusian won six straight games from 3-4 in the first set to 3-0 in the second to get the victory.

Kvitova has a bye into the second round.

Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko won a see-saw match against Kristina Mladenovic 6-1 0-6 6-0.

It was Ostapenko's first win of 2019 after starting the year with three straight losses, while Mladenovic is now 0-4 on the year, including qualifiers.

Ostapenko will next face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who won 7-5 7-6 (4) over Alize Cornet.

Earlier, Julia Goerges won the final four games of the match and beat Maria Sakkari 6-2 7-5 in the first round.

The fifth-seeded German trailed 5-3 in the second set before going on her run. Goerges will play Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva in the second round.

Also, eighth-seeded Donna Vekic came back from a set down to beat Timea Bacsinszky 4-6 6-1 6-3 and set up a second-round match with lucky loser Veronika Kudermetova. AP

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)