Maria Sakkari started the St. Petersburg indoor tournament with the right performance, beating Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-4 and securing qualification in the 2nd round where she faced another Russian No.43 of the world will meet. Ekaterina Alexandrova (9/2, 17:50, Novasports 6HD and live from Sportish)

The Greek tennis player, who rose to world No. 7, needed time to adapt to the indoor conditions to overcome the obstacle of the aggressive and competitive Potapova and marked the 1st career win as No. 1 on the WTA board .

Alexandrova, on the other hand, defeated the Italian Camila Georgi 6:1, 1:6, 6:2 in the premiere on Monday (Feb. 7), marking her second victory of the season.

The Russian is eliminated from the first round of the Australian Open while suffering from instability over the last year as she has failed to claim a consecutive win in 18 of the 22 tournaments she has competed in since last March. In fact, 14 of the 15 of them were on hard surfaces.

When they last met on Russian soil, Alexandrova had qualified for the final of the Moscow tournament, with Maria Sakkari eliminated after the 5th game of the 1st set and Alexandrova taking a 4-1 lead. Before this game, the Greek tennis player counted three wins in a row.

Today’s program opens with 2020 finalist Elena Rimbakina with Kazaka and No. 3 on the board to take on 21-year-old Russian and world No. 81 Barbara Gratseva in a match scheduled at 12 Clock starts: 00 Greek time.

This is followed by the match of board No. 2 Annette Contaveit, who plays against 31-year-old Romanian and world No. 31 Sorana Kirstea, while immediately following is the match between Elize Mertens and Petra Martic.

Maria Sakkari’s next opponent will emerge from this match, even if she qualifies for the quarterfinals.

Wednesday’s (2/9) program will conclude the game of Tokyo gold medalist Belinda Bencic, who will play Kaya Juan of Slovenia.

Source: tennis24