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Jodie Burrage is on a roll in Austria, having come through 2 rounds of qualifying and then demolishing 7th-seeded Varvara Gracheva in straight sets in the 1st-round of the main draw at the WTA 500 event in Linz on Tuesday.
I’m just taking one match at a time,. I’ve actually not been feeling amazing so I’m pretty happy with the result today, and I’m just trying to recover my best and get ready for the next match. But I’m loving it here, it’s my second time here. Definitely better than the first time so I’m really enjoying it. Jodie Burrage
Britain’s No 2 made quick work of the Russian-born Frenchwoman, 6-2 6-0, in just 67 minutes, and next will face lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian from Romania, who advanced with a 6-3 6-4 win over Argentine Nadia Podoroska.
“I played a really good match today,” Burrage said after bagging her first bagel of the year against the World No 46. “You know, she’s a really great player, and I had to come on the court and hit her off it.
“And, I think, playing qualifying really helped me do that today. You get a feel for the courts a little, and it’s her first match, so I knew that going in, and I tried to use that to my advantage and it worked.
“I’m really happy with how I composed myself in that second set and just got the job done.”
Burrage had won just one match this year, at the WTA 125 event in Canberra, before suffering 1st-round losses at the Hobart International and the Australian Open.
She faced a tough opponent in Gracheva, but used her experience in qualifying to her advantage, winning more than half of the points on the Frenchwoman’s serve, and firing 6 aces to book her spot in round 2.
“I’m just taking one match at a time,” Burrage said. “I’ve actually not been feeling amazing so I’m pretty happy with the result today, and I’m just trying to recover my best and get ready for the next match.
“But I’m loving it here, it’s my second time here. Definitely better than the first time so I’m really enjoying it.”
Lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian advanced by beating Nadia Podoroska to meet Jodie Burrage in round 2 in Linz.
© Alexander Scheuber/Getty Images for MatchMaker
With fellow Brit Katie Boulter watching from the stands, Burrage went down an early break at 0-2, but immediately struck back, and dropped just 2 more games for the rest of the match.
The World No 102 broke again in the 7th game, going on to take the opener in 40 minutes before racing through the second set, making 76% of her first serves as Gracheva struggled to get a look at her deliveries.
Burrage broke 3 more times, and served for the win at 5-0 when she ran into some trouble as, suddenly, Gracheva had 4 chances to break back, but the Brit held her nerve to close out the match.
Gracheva made 5 double-faults, and Burrage won more than 50% off the 7th seed’s first serve, plus 67% on the second, while the Brit also converted 5 of her 6 break-point opportunities, and saved 4 of the 5 she faced.
“Her serve is not easy, it’s actually quite in the body and I took a few steps back and came onto the ball,” she commented. “That’s something I’ve been working on the last few weeks as well, so it’s good that you’ve just told me that, it’s good that my work on the practice court is coming out on the match court, hopefully I can do that in the next round too.”
Her next opponent, Cristian, also came back from Australia struggling for form, and lost to Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the final qualifying round, but she defeated Podoroska as a lucky loser in the main draw, and the Romanian has happy memories of this event, finishing as the runner-up here 3 years ago.
Facing another player who is solid from the baseline and has powerful groundstrokes, Burrage will need to keep up her form to advance past her next encounter.
Qualifier Clara Tauson of Denmark defeated Camilla Giorgi for the second year in a row in Austria on Tuesday
© Alexander Scheuber/Getty Images for MatchMaker
Qualifiers are flourishing in Linz, Tauson being the only one to go 3 sets on Tuesday but the Dane rallied to defeat Italy’s Camila Giorgi, 3-6 6-3 6-3, and she will next meet No 1 seed Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia next, while Jule Niemeier was a 6-3 6-4 winner over Russian Anna Blinkova, and the German will now take on No 2 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia.
Meanwhile, Angelique Kerber’s come-back after maternity leave hit a snag when she was beaten by Lucia Bronzetti in her opener on Tuesday.
Bronzetti, ranked 58, powered to a commanding 6-1 6-3 win over the former World No 1 from Germany, who received a wild-card into the draw.
It took the 25-year-old Italian just 62 minutes to complete the win over the 3-time Grand Slam champion, and book a spot in the 2nd-round.
Bronzetti had previously lost to Kerber in straight sets on the grass of Bad Homburg in 2022, one of the German’s last events before her 18-month absence from the WTA Tour.
This time round in Linz, though, Bronzetti kept control, winning 83% of points on her first serve, while she did not face a break point until Kerber squeaked back on serve at 6-1, 3-2, but the Italian immediately reclaimed her lead and raced out the win from there.
Kerber, playing in just the third event of her come-back, has only won 1 of her 7 singles matches so far, but 3 of those losses were to Top 20 players at the United Cup team event, and another was to former finalist Danielle Collins at the Australian Open.
Having won the Linz title in her most recent appearance at the tournament, when she beat former World No 1 Ana Ivanovic in the 2013 final, Kerber was undone on this occasion by 31 unforced errors, compared to just 12 by Bronzetti.
In the 2nd-round, Bronzetti will now take on No 4 seed Elise Mertens in their first meeting, the Belgian having just won her 4th Grand Slam doubles title on Sunday, when she partnered Hsieh Su-wei from Taiwan to triumph at the Australian Open.
Other winners on Tuesday included Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who dispatched her compatriot Lucrezia Stefanini, 6-2 6-0, and Clara Burel from France, a 6-1 6-4 winner over Austrian wild-card Sinja Kraus.
Lucia Bronzetti dispatched wild-card Angelique Kerber in straight sets on Tuesday
© Alexander Scheuber/Getty Images for MatchMaker
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