Svitolina and Andreescu post wins as Giorgi ousts Pliskova in Eastbourne

Second seed Elina Svitolina and Bianca Andreescu, seeded third, both survived to post milestone wins in the first round of the Wimbledon warm-up event in Eastbourne on Tuesday.

Svitolina held her nerve to beat French Open quarter-finalist Paula Badosa 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/1), while Andreescu secured her first victory on grass since 2018, defeating Christina McHale 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

Svitolina will next play another Roland Garros quarter-finalist Rybakina.

Former world number one Karolina Pliskova will drop out of the WTA’s top 10 for the first time in almost five years after her bid to retain the Eastbourne title was ruined by Camila Giorgi as the fifth-seeded Czech was beaten 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 by Italian qualifier in the first round match.

Pliskova had won two of the last three stagings of the Eastbourne event, in 2017 and 2019, but it was the Italian, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2018, who powered past the World No.10 in an hour and 40 minutes for the tenth Top 10 win of her career. It was a breakthrough win for World No.75 Giorgi, who had lost five of her six previous encounters with Pliskova. French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova suffered a 6-1, 6-3 defeat against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko.

Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova lost to Barbora Krejcikova in the Roland Garros title match, having at last reached her first Grand Slam final at a record 52nd attempt.

Britain’s Harriet Dart lost 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 against Kazakh world number 21 Elena Rybakina, who beat Serena Williams at the French Open.

Medvedev enters Mallorca quarter: World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev beat Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-2 to enter quarter-finals of Mallorca Open tennis on Tuesday. The Russian star, who had lost in the first round of Halle Open recently, started slowly. But he once he got into his groove, he clinched the last five games of the opening set to take lead. The second set was an easy ride.

Medvedev fired six aces against two from Coutet and won 80% of the points on first serve as well as 47% of the points on second serve.

The 25-year-old Medvedev’s quarter-final opponent in the next round will be fifth seed Casper Ruud, who advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Tennys Sandgren.

Kvitova beats Piter: Top-seeded Petra Kvitova had to dig deep to reach the second round of the Bad Homburg Open in beating Polish qualifier Katarzyna Piter 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Kvitova lost serve three times but hit 10 aces while prevailing against 135th-ranked Piter in just under two hours at the Wimbledon warmup.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova, who’s ranked 12th, will next play American Ann Li, who eased past Germany’s Anna Zaja 6-0, 6-4.

Another American, Jessica Pegula, also had little difficulty as she got past French player Amandine Hesse 6-2, 6-1. The third-seeded Pegula next faces Czech player Katerina Siniakova.

Also, there were wins for Alizé Cornet, Laura Siegemund, Sara Sorribes Tormo and Anna Blinkova. Simona Halep pulled out of the grass-court tournament shortly before it started in the town near Frankfurt.

Agencies