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Elina Svitolina’s campaign at the Mutua Madrid Open drew to a close on Wednesday. Aliaksandra Sasnovich defeated the Ukrainian 6-3, 7-5 in their first-round meeting, after almost an hour and 40 minutes of play. In the first set, Sasnovich secured two breaks of serve on Svitolina’s serve but surrendered one of the two breaks back.
However, Svitolina wasn’t able to get the second break back and Sasnovich was able to take the lead in the match. In the second set, it was the wildcard’s turn to go up a break. However, Sasnovich broke back right away.
A second break on Svitolina’s serve in the 11th game allowed Sasnovich to serve out the match and take the win in straight sets. Sasnovich won 54% points on return on Svitolina’s second serve while winning 50% of her second-serve points.
The 29-year-old won 79 points for the match of which 19 were winners. Svitolina won 67 points, 14 of which were winners. In the second round, Sasnovich will play 29th seed Marie Bouzkova.
Mutua Madrid Open: Eugenie Bouchard's milestone
Julia Grabher defeated Viktoriya Tomova in their first-round match.
The Austrian won 6-1, 7-6(5) against the Bulgarian, a fellow lucky loser into the main draw. Grabher replaced Emma Raducanu in the draw after the latter withdrew just a couple of hours before the start of Wednesday’s play due to a recurring wrist injury.
In the second round, Grabher will now play Iga Swiatek. Alycia Parks won her first WTA main draw match in over two months. The American defeated Slovakian qualifier Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2 after two hours and 12 minutes of play.
This is the first time Parks’ won a main draw match since the Merida Open in February. For a place in the round-of-32, Parks will next face 15th seed Victoria Azarenka. Lastly, Eugenie Bouchard’s return to the Mutua Madrid Open started with a success.
The 29-year-old beat fellow qualifier Dayana Yastremska 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-2 in their opening-round match. Bouchard’s last appearance in the Spanish capital was in 2017 and she reached the quarter-finals. Since then, the Canadian wasn’t able to play in the tournament making this her first time there in over five years.
Photo Credit: Relevant Tennis Twitter 