(Birmingham) Canada’s Rebecca Marino advanced to the first round at the Birmingham Classic with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 win over China’s Xiyu Wang on Wednesday.
Marino thus ended a three-game losing streak in WTA tournaments. She hadn’t won since a first-round win over China’s Lin Zhu at the Madrid Open in April.
The 32-year-old Vancouverite had to work hard to defeat Wang, 75th overall. Marino had the best after a duel of 2 hours 39 minutes.
Marino, 90th in the WTA rankings, hammered 15 aces, but committed seven double faults. She won 74.7% of the points played on her first serve, but only 44.4% of the points played on her second serve.
The two players each converted four break points during the duel.
In the second round, Marino will face American Emina Bektas, ranked 150th in the world.
Bektas won 6-4, 6-3 over seventh-seeded Chinese Shuai Zhang.
Bektas led 12-3 for aces, in addition to winning 3-1 for breaks.
Favorite Barbora Krejcikova also made it through the first round, winning 6-3, 6-3 over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.
Sixth-seeded American Bernarda Pera was edged out 6-1, 7-6(3) by Czech Linda Fruhvirtova.
Zhu Lin of China beat Magda Linette of Poland, 6-3, 6-0, while Britain’s Harriet Dart beat Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
