The 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia started with a victory at the hard-court tennis tournament WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open with a prize fund of 780,637 USD. The 5th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko prevailed over Danielle Collins (USA) by 2-1 (7:5, 1:6, 7:5) in 2:18 hours.
The Latvian player, who won her fifth career title in Dubai last February, is on a six-match winning streak.
In the third set, Jelena Ostapenko led by 3:1 and her opponent equalized 4:4, but she managed to take her serve in the 11th game, and in the next she closed the match with her first opportunity.
Elise Mertens (Belgium) also advanced to the second round after beating the Italian Martina Trevisan by 2-0 (6:0, 6:2).
Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine) eliminated Sorana Cirstea (Romania) by 2-1 (6:2, 1:6, 6:2) in nearly two hours on the court, and the 7th-seeded Anett Kontaveit (Estonia) defeated Zhang Shuai (China) by 2-1 (4:6, 7:6, 6:4) in 2:21 hours.
