Rebeka Masarova posted a strong win against fifth seed Bianca Andreescu in their second-round match at the Bad Homburg Open on Tuesday. The Spaniard took merely eight minutes past the hour to wrap up a 6-3, 6-2 win over the Canadian.
Masarova hit seven aces and won 94% of her first-serve points. Andreescu had just the one ace in comparison and finished with three double faults. She won only 65% of her first-serve points. Masarova also bettered Andreescu when it came to winning second-serve points.
Masarova won 58% of her second-serve points and nearly the same percentage of points on return on her seeded opponent’s second serve. Looking to reach the semi-finals in Germany, the 23-year-old will now play Emma Navarro.
The American needed two hours and 19 minutes to wrap up a 7-5, 7-6(6) win against Alize Cornet. There was an exchange of breaks in the first set before Navarro edged past the Frenchwoman to go up in the match. The players traded breaks in the second set as well before Navarro took the win in the tie-break.
Bad Homburg Open: Seeds do well for themselves
At the bottom of the draw, second seed Liudmila Samsonova also made her way into the second round of the German WTA 250 event. Samsonova beat Linda Noskova 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 in two hours and 37 minutes.
Samsonova came up with 16 aces and won 65% points on return on the Czech’s second serve to clinch the win. Post-match, Samsonova shared, “It was a very tough match today because she was playing really, really well.
I knew that it was going to be really tough. I was trying to be very strong mentally, because her game is very hard. At the end, the mental part was working well, so I’m very happy”. Lastly, eighth seed Varvara Gracheva also reached the quarters of the Bad Homburg Open.
Gracheva, who changed her nationality to France, claimed a 93-minute victory over Italian Sara Errani, 6-2, 7-5.
