AN interesting start to the 2020 Prague Open was had yesterday, with the first day of proceedings – and last of qualifiers – delayed by rain and forcing a massive day on what was what meant to be the second day of action.

Among the winning seeds of the day were first, second and third seeds in Simona Halep, Petra Martic and Elise Mertens, with just Martic coming away unscathed in her two setter against Varvara Gracheva in just under two hours. Halep and Mertens played in the two longest matches of the day, with Polona Hercog challenging the second in the world and snatching a second set 6-1 victory from Halep to turn the tables after a struggle in the first set. The two players were evenly matched in the third set with neither willing to give, seeing Halep run away with victory in the third set tie-breaker, 6-1 1-6 7-6. Mertens’ Italian opposition in Jasmine Paolini clearly benefited off her Palermo Open berth last week, taking the third seed to a hefty two-hour and 40-minute match, unable to back up her second set comeback. Mertens’ clinical take saw her maintain control even in her losing set, coming away with the 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory.

Carrying over from the previous day, Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Tamara Korpatsch went head to head with Ruse defeating the third seed qualifier and then having to back up and play a second match for the day against Magdalena Frech. While Ruse challenged Frech in the first set she struggled to maintain intensity in the second, going down in straight sets. Also carrying over from day one was a clash between Czech compatriots 15-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova and Kristyna Pliskova, with Fruhvirtova unlucky to draw Pliskova in her main draw debut, going down 6-2 7-5 after sitting 3-2 in the first set before the delay on day three. 

Two more games were suspended and expected to pick back up tomorrow, with Tamara Zidansek and Katerina Siniakova stealing a set apiece in their clash before the halt in proceedings, while Laura Siegemund lost the first set in her clash with Mayar Sherif but sat 4-0 up in the second when the match was called off. The German will hope the delay will not affect her performance, ranking 107 ahead of her Republic of Egypt opposition. As for completed matches, four seeds dropped in straight sets, all going down to their lower ranked opposition. The biggest win went to Irina-Camelia Begu, defeating ninth seed Anastasija Sevastova in just 68 minutes, 6-2 6-2, while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova put up a tough battle in the first set against Arantxa Rus but struggled to maintain it in the second going down 7-5 6-2. Both Barbora Strycova and Ekaterina Alexandrova also failed in their pursuit, with Strycova’s match against Sara Sorribes Tormo going over two hours, with the Spaniard trailing 0-5 in the first set before overcoming the Czech in a huge 7-6 6-1 comeback. Meanwhile Alexandrova was a relative easybeat despite her fifth seeding, downed by Lesia Tsurenko 6-2 6-4.

In other matches, Barbora Krejcikova never looked like losing to Patricia Maria Tig despite the Romanian’s intensity while, like Paolini, Camila Giorgi used her Palermo court time as an advantage against Marta Kostyuk, and despite dropping the first set came out with a vengeance for the 4-6 6-2 7-6 victory. Ana Bogdan collected the most significant win of the day, defeating Australian Storm Sanders and only dropping a game in each set, while 19-year-old Leonie Kung defeated Spaniard Aliona Bolsova in just under 80 minutes.