LONDON – Garbine Muguruza of Spain notched her first grass-court win of 2022 to beat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1, 7-6 (9/7) to reach the last 16 of the Rothesay International Eastbourne.
After a first set that lasted just over a half hour, Muguruza was pushed hard in the second set by world No. 92 Frech, the third-highest ranked Polish player.
From 6-1, 3-1 down, Frech got the second set back on serve, was ahead for much of it on serve from then on, and battled back from a big deficit in the tiebreak.
Muguruza won the five of the first six points, but ultimately needed four match points to secure a 1 hour, 42-minute victory.
Since winning the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico to end 2021, the two-time major-winner has struggled.
The win against Frech is just her third win in a WTA event since February. She’s playing Eastbourne for a third time in her career.
“The conditions were hard. I feel like I fought hard against the wind, and I haven’t played many matches on grass either,” Muguruza said in victory.
“I could see today that if I didn’t fight as hard as I can, I wasn’t going to win.”
Frech’s compatriot Magda Linette opened play on Centre Court earlier Monday with a marathon win over No.17 seed Alison Riske.
The 66th-ranked Linette came from a set down to outlast Riske, ranked 31 spots above her, in a staggering 3 hours, 9 minutes, 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(4).
the pair’s third meeting in 2022, Linette was also a break down twice in the final set. She’s now beaten Riske twice this year after losing their first three matches in a head-to-head that dates back to 2017.
To do so, she hit a staggering 52 winners in victory to go along with 11 aces, and saved 11 of the 13 break points she faced.
Former World No.19 Donna Vekic and former World No.23 Lesia Tsurenko both know their way around a grass court: Vekic reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2018, while Tsurenko had a best-ever run to Round 3 a year prior.
After lengthy struggles with injuries, though, both are now far off their career-best rankings—but each showed glimpses of her best in Round 1 wins in Eastbourne after successfully navigating the qualifying rounds.
Vekic lost just two games in beating Tsurenko’s Ukrainian compatriot Dayana Yastremska, 6-0, 6-2, in 57 minutes, while Tsurenko outlasted Colombia’s Camila Osorio in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 7-5, 7-6(2).
Tsurenko needed six set points to win an opening set where she led 5-3, and saved a set point in the second set with Osorio serving for it at 5-4.
Elsewhere, Alize Cornet won a rematch with a player who beat her last week as rain interrupted play at the Bad Homburg Open, leaving Angelique Kerber waiting overnight to complete her match.
Ninth-seeded Cornet swept past Anna Kalinskaya 6-2, 6-4 for her first grass-court win of the season following a first-round loss to the same opponent last week in Berlin.
That sets up a second-round meeting with Germany’s Tatjana Maria, whose 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Anastasia Potapova was frequently interrupted by the weather.
Kerber won the Bad Homburg tournament last year to end a three-year title drought and kick-start a revival in her fortunes before reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
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