First matches won in Zhuhai

The first round robin matches have been played in Zhuhai for the Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy.

ORCHID GROUP 

Aryna Sabalenka (3) defeated Ash Barty (9) 6-4 6-4

ROSE GROUP 

Elise Mertens (4) defeated Anett Kontaveit (10) 6-3 6-1

AZALEA GROUP

Dasha Kasatkina (1) defeated Qiang Wang (11) 6-1 2-6 7-5 in a match featuring multiple lengthy rallies where both players fired cross court shots off both wings and often closed out points with winners.  The only problem was holding serve. Six of the eight games in set two were service breaks, and after two service holds in the decider, nine games in succession were awarded to the receiver.

Kasatkina served for the match at 5-4 and couldn’t manage the task, but at 6-5 she finally broke the sequence and won an entertaining clash.

In the doubles:

BOUGAINVILLEA GROUP 

Lyudmyla Kichenok / Nadiia Kichenok (3) defeated wildcards Xinyu Jiang / Zhaoxuan Yang (5) 7-6(9) 3-6 11-9

In the doubles, if sets one and two are shared, a tie break decides the match - first team to 10 points, with a two point break.

Today features more round robin matches 

• Julia Goerges (5) v Anett Kontaveit (10)
• Dasha Kasatkina (1) v Madison Keys (6)
• Garbiñe Muguruza (7) v wildcard Shuai Zhang (12)
• Mihaela Buzarnescu / Alicja Rosolska (1) v Shuko Aoyama / Lidziya Marozava (4) (from the LILY group)