REIGNING Open BLS De Limoges title holder and number one seed, Ekaterina Alexandrova has escaped a scare from Romanian, Monica Niculescu to move through to the second round. The Russian, gunning for a standalone record of three titles at the event, had to fight hard to win, 6-4 2-6 6-3 in just under two hours.

At times, Alexandrova’s serving was hit and miss, producing eight aces and eight double faults for the match, but winning 74.6 of her first serves. It was her second serve that Niculescu was taking advantage of, with the Romanian limiting the Russian to a low 42.2 per cent of points won when relying on the second serve. Luckily for Alexandrova, she held her nerve, saving nine of a possible 12 break points, while capitalising with five of eight converted on her opponent’s serve. Niculescu herself was strong with putting the ball on the court, serving at 77.6 per cent, but only won 60.6 per cent of the time. Aside from a near flawless second set which saw the challenger accurately produce 21 of her first 22 serves in play, Alexandrova was able to use her overall ground strokes and varied gamestyle to advantage.

While Alexandrova made it through to the next round, the same could not be said for number two seed, Caroline Garcia. The Frenchwoman suffered a terrible 6-2 6-2 defeat at the hands of her French Cup teammate, Pauline Parmenter to roll on from Day 2, when third seed Alison Van Uytvanck was sent packing. Garcia’s last singles match was a pair of donuts to Ash Barty back in November, and it showed with Parmentier using all of her experience and on-court knowledge of her teammate, to down her in an hour and 25 minutes. Despite the scoerline, Garcia forced Parmentier to earn every point, with a remarkable 127 points played, including 77 on Garcia’s serve. The number two seed saved 13 of a possible 18 break points, but only converted one from four herself. For most of the match she was on the back foot, and the weight of numbers eventually prevailed with Parmentier getting up and moving through to the second round.

In the other two Round 1 matches, Belgium’s Greet Minnen moved through to the second round after downing Frenchwoman Clara Burel, 63-63 in 73 minutes, while Romanian Ana Bogdan booked a second round spot with a 7-5 6-2 win over Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus in 92 minutes.

The upsets continued to brew in the Round of 16 with French fifth seed and 2016 winner, Alize Cornet bundled out courtesy of Liudmilla Samsonova, 6-4 3-6 6-3 in two hours, while qualifier Nicole Gibbs bounced back from a set down to run over the top of other Frenchwoman Jessika Ponchet, 1-6 6-1 6-2. The results mean just two French players remain in the draw.

Alexandrova has a quick turnaround tomorrow, facing one of the two home court heroes in Oceane Dodin, while later in the day, Parmentier takes on Minnen. Sixth seed Russian, Anna Blinkova has a big day, facing off agains Aliaksandra Sasnovich, before the last match of the day in doubles.