Bacsinszky on comeback trail

First round matches in WTA tournaments in Asia and Europe 

WTA Tianjin 

• Qualifier Barbora Krejcikova defeated Kateryna Kozlova 4-1 (retired)
• Katie Boulter defeated Maria Sakkari (8) 7-6(4) 6-3
• Aryna Sabalenka (4) defeated Sofia Kenin 7-6(4) 4-6 6-0
• Qualifier Misaki Doi defeated Yulia Putintseva 6-0 3-6 7-6(6)
• Timea Bacsinszky defeated Danielle Collins (7) 6-3 (retired)

Timea is a former Swiss top ten player, as high as 9 in May 2016, but an injury to her right hand suffered at the end of the year affected her 2017 adversely, forcing her to quit the season in September, eventually undergoing surgery.

The highlight for 2017 was a semi final appearance at Roland Garros.

Timea returned to the tour in St Petersburg in January 2018, with her ranking at 42.  This had slipped to 63 after only playing four matches, all losses.  Timea didn’t lift a competitive racquet between the Fed Cup playoffs in April and the ITF tournament in Montpelier in June, and missed defending the 780 points gained from her Roland Garros semi final in 2017.

Subsequently her ranking plummeted to 313, then further to 761 due to more failure to defend 2017 points.

An ITF final in Biarritz, and a quarter final on the same circuit in Saint-Malo, both in France, has seen the ranking move back in a positive direction, but still languishing at a live 292.

It will be a boost for Swiss tennis for Timea to once again feature at the top of the women’s game, together with Belinda Bencic, Stefanie Voegele and others.

• Qualifier Jana Cepelova defeated Yafan Wang 7-5 3-6 6-4
• Elise Mertens (3) defeated Lin Zhu 7-5 6-1
• Qualifier Yuxuan Zhang defeated Irina-Camelia Begu 7-5 6-3
• Caroline Garcia (2) defeated qualifier Fang Ying Xun 6-4 6-1

WTA Hong Kong

• Elina Svitolina (1) defeated wildcard Priscilla Hon 6-2 6-3
• Qualifier Nao Hibino defeated Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-3
• Christina McHale defeated wildcard Eudice Chong 6-7(2) 6-2 6-1
• Qiang Wang (6) defeated wildcard Ling Zhang 6-0 6-2
• Garbiñe Muguruza (4) defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-3 6-1
• Ana Bogdan defeated lucky loser Caroline Dolehide 6-7(2) 6-3 7-5
• Dasha Gavrilova (7) defeated Zarina Diyas 3-6 7-5 6-1
• Monica Niculescu defeated qualifier Ons Jabeur 4-6 7-6(0) 6-4
• Qualifier Lesley Kerkhove defeated qualifier Bibiane Schoofs 6-4 6-0
• Shuai Zhang defeated qualifier Sabina Sharipova 6-3 7-6(3)

WTA Linz

• Tatjana Maria defeated qualifier Anna Blinkova 2-6 6-2 6-3
• Kiki Mladenovic defeated wildcard Harriet Dart 6-3 6-4
• Timea  Babos defeated Donna Vekic (8) 6-1 6-1
• Joanna Larsson defeated Stefanie Voegele 6-2 4-6 6-4
• Vera Lapko defeated Belinda Bencic 1-6 6-1 6-0
• Qualifier Anna Karolina Schmiedlova defeated qualifier Fiona Ferro 6-2 6-3
• Lucky loser Kristyna Pliskova defeated qualifier Valentini Grammatikopoulou 6-4 6-2
• Camila Giorgi (5) defeated Pauline Parmentier 6-3 7-6(4)
• Qualifier Jil Teichmann defeated Sorana Cirstea 6-4 6-2
• Margarita Gasparyan defeated Monica Puig 6-2 (retired)