(Adelaide) American Amanda Anisimova made the most of her draft status and defeated Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Adelaide International Tournament on Tuesday, enjoying her first victory in the main draw of a WTA tournament since August.
Anisimova, who had reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year and who had reached the four aces of the French Open, points to 29e world rank. She made it through qualifying and had to be drafted before reaching the second round in Adelaide.
The 21-year-old had won just three games before losing to fourth seed Veronika Kudermetova in the first round in Adelaide last week, meaning she had to qualify for the main draw this week.
On Tuesday, she exploited the glitches of Samsonova on serve — who double-faulted seven times, not to mention five broken serve — to set the stage for a second-round match against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Elsewhere, Barbora Krejcikova continued her late 2022 run by beating last year’s Adelaide tournament runner-up Alison Riske-Amritraj 6-2, 7-6(3). Krejcikova has won two titles, and nine of her last 10 games in 2022.
She will now face fifth seed Daria Kasatkina. Krejcikova let a match point slip away at 5-4 in the second set, but earned five straight points in the tiebreaker to take the win.
On the men’s side, American Tommy Paul beat Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 7-5. Paul qualified for the quarter-finals of both tournaments in Adelaide last year.
Meanwhile, Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin won her first-round match at the Hobart International tournament. She defeated China’s Lin Zhu 6-2, 6-2.
