The first day of main draw play at the inaugural WTA Basil Tennis Cup featured victories by Annika Beck and Jana Cepelova.
The WTA Basil Tennis Cup kicked off on Sunday with 19-year-olds Annika Beck and Jana Cepelova each recording wins over Brazilian wildcards, first WTA tournament in Brazil in over a decade.
Although she promptly lost her opener in Memphis to Marina Erakovic, she gave the eventual champion her biggest test of the week – which included a match point for the German. With a season already highlighted by her best WTA outing, a quarterfinal showing in Shenzhen, Beck reached her career-high of No.65 last week.
In her opener in Florianopolis, where she is seeded at a WTA event for the first time, the eighth-seeded Beck overcame a second set letdown and was a 62 36 60 victor over María Fernanda Alves. At one point in the one-sided third set, Beck reeled off 13 straight points.
“I’m really happy that I won this match,” Beck said. “The first two sets we had a great fight. It took a great effort for her to finish because she got cramps in the beginning of the third set. I hope that she’s okay, and I’m looking forward to my next round.”
Beck and Cepelova will play each other in the second round. Beck is 2-0 in the series, but both have been tight three-setters.
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