After nearly two full years away, 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady played her first competitive match and dominated Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open on Tuesday in Washington.
Brady, a 28-year-old from Harrisburg, Pa., was sidelined by knee and foot injuries since the summer of 2021. Back at full strength, she needed just 68 minutes to beat Kalinina, ranked No. 28 in the world, by winning a whopping 18 of 20 first-service points (90 percent) and converting six of nine break-point opportunities.
Two other Americans won early Tuesday, with Hailey Baptiste defeating Czech foe Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 and Peyton Stearns topping Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-4.
Romania’s Sorana Cirstea won a marathon second-set tiebreaker to take down Petra Martic of Croatia, 6-3, 7-6 (13). Martic led 6-3 before Cirstea saved three straight set points; Martic eventually failed on seven occasions to close it out before Cirstea pushed ahead for good.
In evening matches, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez eliminated the United States’ Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-5, and seventh-seeded Madison Keys of the U.S. topped China’s Qinwen Zheng 7-5, 6-1.
Livesport Prague Open
No. 4 seed Linda Noskova is the highest seed still standing in her home nation after beating Elvina Kalieva 6-1, 6-2 in 60 minutes in the Czech Republic.
After another Czech player, No. 1 seed Marie Bouzkova, was defeated Monday, the second and third seeds lost their first-round matches on Tuesday. Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer rallied past Chinese No. 2 Lin Zhu 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Yue Yuan beat No. 3 Shuai Zhang 6-2, 6-2 in an all-Chinese battle.
No. 9 seed Xiyu Wang of China beat Denmark’s Clara Tauson 6-3, 6-2. French No. 6 seed Alize Cornet completed a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over Czech foe Lucie Havlickova after their match was suspended Monday.
Other winners Tuesday included Germany’s Jule Niemeier, the Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, Emiliana Arango of Colombia and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia
