WTA Qualifiers in Bastad Win 5 of 6 1st Round Matches, Knock Out #1,3,4,5 Seeds

PETE ZIEBRON

Last year in Bastad, world #1 Serena Williams dropped only 19 games in 5 matches to claim the title at the Collector Swedish Open.  

• This year, 5 qualifiers won their 1st round match and all 8 seeds have been already been eliminated.  Only half of the 2nd round has been completed.

Qualifier Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada contributed to the barrage of upsets in Bastad.  Pete Ziebron Images

In fact, the successful qualifying ladies did significant damage to the main draw as they collectively dismissed the tournament's #1, #3, #4 and #5 seeds in the process.  Meanwhile, the #2 seed was defeated by world #114 Grace Min, who accepted the last possible entry place into the main draw.

Let's review some of the stunning results in Bastad:

#161  (Q) Anett Kontavit EST d. #21 & #1 seed Alize Cornet FRA 7-6(3) 6-3

#114  Grace Min USA d. #23 & #2 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS 6-0 6-4

#236  (Q) Gabriela Dabrowski CAN d. #39 & #3 seed Camila Giorgi ITA 3-6 6-3 6-2

#201  (Q) Laura Siegemund GER d. #52 & #4 seed Yaroslava Shvedova KAZ 7-5 6-3

#152  (Q) Richel Hogenkamp NED d. #68 & #5 seed Anna Schmiedlova SVK 6-3 6-1

#204  (Q) Yulia Putinseva KAZ d. #88 Teliana Pereira BRA 3-1 RET

 

Second round action in Bastad continued today with qualifier Yulia Putinseva successfully through to the 3rd round while fellow qualifiers Anett Kontavit and Laura Siegemund dropped their 2nd round encounters.

Tomorrow, qualifier Gabriela Dabrowski will take on German Mona Barthel, the only main draw player in Bastad who managed to win her match against a qualifier, Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic.  Meanwhile, qualifier Richel Hogenkamp will play Estonian Kaia Kanepi and the last player into the main draw, Grace Min plays Alexandra Panova of Russia.

• The draw in Bastad is wide open after only a portion of the 2nd round has been completed as the rest of the remaining seeds were eliminated today.

Today, #6 seed Annika Beck of Germany fell to Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena 2-6 6-4 7-6(2) in 2nd round action and 7th seed Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor of Spain was eliminated by Julia Goerges of Germany in first round action 6-2 6-0.  Yesterday, #8 seed Paula Hercog of Slovenia fell to German Dinah Pfizenmaier 7-5 7-6(5).

The highest ranked players remaining in the draw are: #54 Kaia Kanepi EST and #61 Mona Barthel GER.  Ironically, should Kanepi and Barthel win their respective 2nd round matches against qualifiers, they would face each other in the 3rd round of the tournament.