WTA MADRID – Sára Bejlek (18) celebrates her first win in the main competition of the WTA tournament for the sixth time. The Czech teenager made it to the prestigious clay court event in Madrid, where in her debut at the WTA 1000 event, she turned the match against the 45th player in the world, Russia’s Anna Blinkova (25), claimed the most valuable scalp and followed up on two wins from the qualification.
Bejlek – Blinková 4:6, 6:3, 6:3
In Madrid, Sára Bejlek qualified for the third of four WTA tournaments this year and for the sixth time overall in her career, and for the first time she was able to follow it up with a win in the main competition.
After duels with opponents from the tail of the TOP 100, the Belgian Yanina Wickmayer and the Chinese Zhaoxuan Bai, she also found a recipe for the 45th player in the world, Anna Blinkova. Seven years older than Russia, which this year won the scalps of Jelena Rybakinová, Jessica Pegulaová, Caroline Wozniacka or Karolína Plíšková, she defeated 4:6, 6:3, 6:3.
The 18-year-old Czech did not confirm a break twice at the beginning of the match, from 3:1 she lost four games in a row due to a series of 10 lost balls, and although she had four break points to equalize, she did not save the set. From the score of 4:6 and 0:2, however, she bit into the more experienced opponent, hesitated only once to serve and converted the first match point after 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Bejlek played with a member of the TOP 50 for the fifth time and for the first time she won a set and finally the entire match. Her most valuable scalps to date have been wins over world No. 78 Nadia Podoroska of Argentina (Colina 2023) and Alycia Parks of the USA (Australian Open 2023 qualifier).
Statistics of the match Sára Bejlek – Anna Blinkovová (@ Livesport)
While Bejlek has a great record of 18:6 in the WTA tournament qualifiers, in the main competition she finally erased zero in the win circle and adjusted the record to 1:5.
In the second round, the participant of four Grand Slams, in which she has not yet followed up the successfully completed qualification and has not even played a set, will face another Russian. On Friday, she will challenge the world’s 25th player Anna Kalinska (H2H 0:0), who in February, thanks to the scalp of world number one Iga Šwiateková, played the final in the thousand in Dubai.
Four Czech women in the 2nd round
Bejlek is the only one of the quartet of Czech female tennis players who managed the 1st round match in Madrid. Already on Tuesday, Kateřina Siniaková and sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtovy were unsuccessful. Among the 64 best, the seeded trio Markéta Vondroušová, Barbora Krejčíková and Linda Nosková, who had a free draw at the start, completed the competition.
Results of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid
Článek původně publikován pro Livesport Zprávy.
Tags: Bejlek win WTA circuit knocked TOP member Blinkova Madrid
