Quebecer Leylah Fernandez continued her preparation for Wimbledon with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory against seventh seed Barbora Krejcikova on Monday in the first round of the Eastbourne tournament.
Fernandez, from Laval, won 81% of rallies with her first serve ball and saved seven of the nine break points she faced. She herself took advantage of five of her nine opportunities to break.
Fernandez, who began her grass-court season with a run to the third round last week in Birmingham, will face the winner of the duel between qualifiers Ashlyn Krueger and Viktorija Golubic.
In doubles in Eastbourne, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and her New Zealand partner Erin Routliffe, favorites, defeated Czechs Anna Siskova and Miriam Kolodziejova 6-3 and 6-2.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will now face the Chinese tandem of Guo Hanyu and Jiang Xinyu.
In Germany, Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu lost 6-4, 6-2 to Russian Anna Blinkova in the first round of the Bad Homburg tournament.
PHOTO GONZALO FUENTES, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Bianca Andreescu
Andreescu reached the final of the tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, to start her grass season.