(Birmingham) Canada’s Rebecca Marino advanced to the first round at the Birmingham Classic with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 win over China’s Xiyu Wang on Wednesday.
Marino thus ended a three-game losing streak in WTA tournaments. She hadn’t won since a first-round win over China’s Lin Zhu at the Madrid Open in April.
The 32-year-old Vancouverite had to work hard to beat Wang, 75e worldwide. Marino had the best after a duel of 2 hours 39 minutes.
Marina, 90e in the WTA rankings, hammered 15 aces, but committed seven double faults. She won 74.7% of the points played on her first serve, but only 44.4% of the points played on her second serve.
The two players each converted four break points during the duel.
In the second round, Marino will face American Emina Bektas, 150e world racket.
Bektas won 6-4, 6-3 over seventh-seeded Chinese Shuai Zhang.
Top-seed Barbora Krejcikova also advanced to the first round on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.