Madrid: Garbine Muguruza’s unhappy relationship with the Madrid Open continued when the No. 7 seed crashed out of the Round of 32 after a 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.
Kalinina had already shown she is an effective clay-court player by defeating Sloane Stephens of the United States and she gave Muguruza few options in a match that lasted just 81 minutes.
The Spanish player was hampered by a calf problem and especially struggled in the second set with a heavy strapping on her lower leg, Xinhua reports. Muguruza wasn’t the only seed to go out of the tournament with sixth seed American Danielle Collins suffering a heavy 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Canadian Bianca Andreescu.
Fourth seed Maria Sakkari is also out of the tournament after failing to hold onto a first-set lead against Daria Kastakina. After taking the first set 6-3, Sakkari lost the second set 6-3 and was overwhelmed 6-1 in the decisive set.
US Open champion Emma Raducanu of Britain continued her adaptation to clay with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.
“I’m definitely very happy with my performance. Marta’s a great opponent, we’ve played several times in the juniors and once last year. I knew it was always going to be a really tough battle so I went out there trying to be really aggressive and it definitely paid off,” said Raducanu after her match.
Switzerland’s world No. 75 Jil Teichmann produced another minor upset as she enjoyed a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Leylah Fernandez of Canada, who was ranked 17th in Madrid.
Twelfth seed Jessica Pegula qualified for the round of 16 thanks to a straight set 6-3, 6-3 win over Kaia Kanepi from Estonia.
–IANS
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