The second-seeded Anna Blinkova (Russia) lost in the first round of the WTA 250 Morocco Open in Rabat to Laura Siegemund (Germany) by 0-2 (1:6, 6:7). The Russian tennis player made a total of five double faults and had only 57% of the first serve.
Both players started the match with the exchange of breaks in their first serve games, but after which Laura Siegemund had total dominance on the court, winning the next five games in a row with three more breaks to close the set by 6:1 in only 39 minutes.
Anna Blinkova started hesitantly the second set as well, as her German opponent broke and took a lead by 2:0. However, the Russian player won three games in a row, including two breaks, but even after getting some impetus in her gameplay, Laura Siegemund equalized to 3:3. Since then, both players exchanged two breaks each and won one serve game each to put the set into a tiebreak. Laura Siegemund had full dominance during the tiebreak and won it by 7-4.
Thus, Laura Siegemund qualified for the second round of the clay tennis tournament and will face Camila Osorio (Colombia), who won the first-round match after retiring of Elina Avanesyan (Russia) in the third set.
In the other matches from the day, Peyton Stearns (USA) defeated the qualifier Aleksandra Krunic (Serbia) by 2-1 (5:7, 6:2, 6:3), while the 7th-seeded Elisabetta Cocciaretto (Italy) eliminated Yasmine Kabbaj (Morocco) by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).