The Wimbledon 2022 champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeated the American Madison Keys with 2-1 (5:7, 6:3, 6:3) in the first round of the WTA 500 Ostrava Open with a prize fund of 757,900 USD. Thus, the Russian-Kazakhstani tennis player took revenge after losing to Madison Keys at the French Open / Roland Garros and WTA 1000 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Elena Rybakina recorded 7 aces and won 78% of the first serve points.
The match started equal for both players winning their serving games and with only one break point. In the 11th game of the first set, however, Madison Keys got 2 break points and realized already the first, thus, taking a lead to 6:5. She was serving for the set and undoubtedly won it from the first set point.
In the second set, Madison Keys started perfectly using momentum in her gameplay and broke the serve of her opponent. However, Elena Rybakina returned the break immediately and even took another break, thus, winning 4 games in a row. By the end of the set, she had no problems and won her serving games to close the set by 6:3.
In the third set, Elena Rybakina recorded two breaks against only one for Madison Keys and this was enough for her to win the match.
In the other matches of the first round of the WTA 500 Ostrava Open, the Australian Ajla Tomljanovic prevailed over Chinaese Zhang Shuai by 2-0 (6:3, 6:3).
The Czech player Petra Kvitova defeated American Bernarda Pera by 2-1 (6:3, 2:6, 6:4).
Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia), who won her second title of the year in Seoul last month, defeated the former world number one Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) by 2-1 (6:4, 4:6, 6:2).
The Swiss player Jil Teichmann lost in the first round to Tereza Martincova (Czech Republic) by 0-2 (6:7, 6:7).
