Viktoriya Tomova (Bulgaria) qualified for the second round of the Australian Open after defeating Kayla Day (USA) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:2) in almost two hours of play. For the Bulgarian tennis player this is her first victory in Melbourne in her three appearances so far, being always been eliminated in the first round.
Viktoriya Tomova won the difficult opening game after several deuces, but then made a break for 3:1. Kayla Day could have broken back but the Bulgarian tennis player held her serve and then missed to get even closer to winning the set with another break. The concentration of the Bulgarian tennis player fell and her opponent equalized at 4:4. Two more dramatic games followed, which went to Viktoriya Tomova’s account. She converted the third set ball and that largely discouraged the American.
In the second set, Viktoriya Tomova took a 4:0 lead, before collapsing and losing two straight games, but very quickly took matters into her own hands and after an hour and 51 minutes she triumphed.
Viktoriya Tomova won 72% of first serve points and made three times less unforced errors than her opponent – 10 versus 29.
Just ten days ago, Viktoriya Tomova defeated Kayla Day at the WTA 250 Hobart International, where she reached the quarterfinals.
Viktoriya Tomova’s next opponent is the 19th-seeded Elina Svitolina (Ukraine). The Ukrainian player had no problems with Taylah Preston (Australia) and eliminated her by 2-0 (6:2, 6:2). Both player met twice with two victories for the Ukrainian player.
In other early matches from the second day of the Australian Open, the 19-year-old Linda Noskova eliminated Marie Bouzkova in the all-Czech match after 2-0 (6:1, 7:5), while Nadia Podoroska (Argentina) defeated Tamara Zidansek (Slovakia) by 2-0 (6:1, 6:0) and Varvara Gracheva (France) won her match versus Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium) by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).
The Australian qualifier Storm Hunter also advanced to the second round after defeating Sara Errani (Italy) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3).
