Barbora Krejcikova passed the first round of the Stuttgart tournament very easily, as did Paula Badosa. Caroline Garcia knows her opponent for her entry into the running: Tatjana Maria.
Semi-finalist in Charleston, where she lost to future winner Ons Jabeur, Daria Kasatkina fell back to earth. In Stuttgart, the world No. 8 was swept away by Paula Badosa, now 31st after having long been in the Top 10. The Spaniard won 6-1, 6-1 in 1h10, and signed her first victory against the Russian since January 2022, after losing her last two confrontations and then forfeiting the semi-final in Adelaide in January. Author of 3 aces and 68% of first serves, Badosa saved the only break point that his opponent got, in the first game of the second set. The Spaniard took the Russian’s serve at 0-0, 2-0 and 5-1 in the first set and at 2-1 and 4-1 in the second.
Semi-finalist last year when she was world No. 3, Badosa has a lot of points to defend this week, and she will have a great opportunity to see the quarters, since she will challenge her compatriot 77th in the world in the next round, Cristina Bucsa. At the top of the table, a match was between two former Grand Slam winners, who are not even seeds this week, and Jelena Ostapenko, winner of the French Open 2017, crushed Emma Raducanu, winner of the US Open 2021 , with the score of 6-2, 6-1. At the end of the program, world No. 12 Barbora Krejcikova, also a former Roland-Garros winner, did not go into detail either, with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Liudmila Samsonova: 6-2, 6-0 in 1h22, saving seven break points out of seven (four in the very first game, three at 3-1 in the first set). Next opponent: Aryna Sabalenka.
A special match for the Garcia coach
Finally, Caroline Garcia, seeded n°4 and exempted from the first round, knows her opponent in the second. It will be the German Tatjana Maria, 71st in the world, who fought for 2h45 to eliminate the 138th Ylena In-Albon (6-2, 4-6, 7-6) on her fourth match point, after having missed two at 5-4 in the third set. The French won their only confrontation, but it was on grass in 2015, after saving two match points. Difficult to draw lessons from it. This meeting will necessarily be special for Bertrand Perret, who returns as coach of Garcia after having left in the fall, and who trained in February … the daughter of Tatjana Maria, Charlotte, 10 years old.
