Anett Kontaveit, Belinda Bencic, and Elise Mertens with difficult victories in the first round in St Petersburg

The seeded players Anett Kontaveit, Belinda Bencic and Elise Mertens started their participation in the indoor tennis tournament in St Petersburg with difficult three-set victories.

Estonian 2nd-seeded player Anett Kontaveit had the fewest problems, showing hesitation only in the second set and winning her match versus Swiss player Jil Teichmann ith 2-1 (6:3, 1:6, 6:3). In the second round, Anett Kontaveit will expect the winner of the match between Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic and Sorana Cîrstea from Romania.

Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, who is fifth-seeded, had to overcome serious problems in the third set to beat Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova with 2-1 (6:2, 4:6, 7:6). However, the Swiss managed to start powerfully in the tiebreak of the third set and took the lead with 5:1 points to close her match in the third match ball.

Belgium tennis player Elise Mertens, eighth-seeded, also had to overcome a break in the third set to beat Frenchwoman Alize Cornet with 2-1 (3:6, 6:2, 6:4). Elise Mertens’ next opponent will be the winner of the match between Russian Polina Rahimova and Croatian Petra Martic.

The prize fund of the WTA 500 tournament in St Petersburg is 700,000 USD