2nd rounds commence in Russia, Thailand

Latest results from St Petersburg and Hua Hin.

St Petersburg 

First round

To complete the opening round matches, qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated lucky loser Katie Boulter, who was not so lucky, 7-5 4-6 6-1.

Second round 

• Wildcard Vera Zvonareva v Julia Goerges (5)

Back in the top 100 for the first time since this January six years ago, the former world number two, Vera Zvonareva faced a tough assignment against top twenty player and fifth seed Julia Goerges.

As predicted, Goerges began well, pushing Zvonareva to all parts of the court, and creating three break points early, the final one used to break the Russian serve and lead 2-1.

The Goerges break was maintained throughout the rest of set one, despite an horrific 33% of her first serves being legitimate. 6-4.

Set two started in the same manner of the first, with an early break and Zvonareva trailing 2-0.  That was the last joy seen by Goerges as Zvonareva came charging.

After breaking back for 3-3, following a string of unforced errors from the Goerges racquet, Zvonareva controlled the set, and levelled when a second break occurred in the tenth and final game. 6-4.

Zvonareva broke twice in the decider, and each time Goerges broke back and at 4-5 had the chance to level it.  However, the aggressive Zvonareva shot down the German serve for the third time in the set, and won 4-6 6-4 6-4.

• Dasha Kasatkina came into the tournament without a win this year, and still not finding success this week, finds herself in the quarter finals.  How, you may ask ? Seeded third, a first round bye gave her free entrance to a match with Sharapova, but a shoulder injury forced Maria to withdraw, and her walkover left Kasatkina with no need to remover her racquet from the bag.  She will play Zvonareva for a place in the semis.
• Petra Kvitova (1) defeated wildcard Vika Azarenka 6-2 7-6(3)
• Donna Vekic (8) defeated lucky loser Veronika Kudermetova 6-4 6-3

Hua Hin

Second round 

• Garbiñe Muguruza (1) defeated Mona Barthel 6-3 7-5
• Dayana Yastremska (8) defeated wildcard Shuai Peng 6-1 6-4
• Ajla Tomljanovic (6) defeated Kateryna Kozlova 7-6(0) 6-1
• Saisai Zheng (4) defeated Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2 6-4