Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) defeated the former world’s number one Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) in the “mom’s clash” of the first round of the WTA 250 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. The Ukrainian tennis player achieved a straight-set victory after winning the match by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3) in 1:45 hours of play.
Elina Svitolina started the match with a break, but Caroline Wozniacki equalized immediately. Both exchanged another break in the 7th and 8th games of the set, but the Ukrainian needed to save 3 break points in the 9th game before closing the set in the 10th with another break. In the second set, Elina Svitolina started more convincingly and broke her opponent in the 4th game to lead by 3:1. Caroline Wozniacki tried to equalize by returning the break in the 7th game, but the Ukrainian tennis player made another break and this proved to be enough for her to close the set at 6:3 and win the match.
In the second round, Elina Svitolina will face the British talent Emma Raducanu, who eliminated Elena Gabriela Ruse (Romania) after 2-1 (6:3, 4:6, 7:5).
In the other matches from the day, the 16-year-old qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) defeated Anna Blinkova (Russia) by 2-0 (7:5, 6:4) and in the second round will face the top-seeded Cori Coco Gauff (USA), who eliminated Claire Liu (USA) after 2-0 (6:4, 6:2).
Petra Martic (Croatia) also advanced to the second round after winning her opening match versus Rebeka Masarova (Spain) by 2-1 (3:6, 6:3, 6:3) and will face Yue Yuan (China), who defeated Kayla Day (USA) by 2-1 (7:6, 6:7, 6:1).
Varvara Gracheva (France) eliminated Tereza Martincova (Czech Republic) after 2-1 (6:7, 7:5, 6:2) and in the next round will face Lulu Sun (Switzerland), who defeated McCartney Kessler (USA) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3).
