Vorarlberg native Julia Grabher wants to take the opportunity on Wednesday to achieve her first home win in ten years at the tournament in Linz (from 3.55 p.m., live on ORF Sport +). Austria’s number one meets American Madison Brengle in the first round of the Upper Austria Ladies. Patricia Mayr-Achleitner was the last ÖTV player to win a round of 16 in Linz in 2013. Tournament favorite Maria Sakkari is already there.
“Of course I’m constantly asked about it, but that’s why I’m not putting any particular pressure on myself now. It’s an incentive for me to play here in front of a home crowd,” said Grabher, commenting on the long wait for an Austrian player to win at the home tournament. The 26-year-old is particularly looking forward to the support of family and friends. “That doesn’t happen that often over the course of a year.”
In the first duel with the world number 82. Brengle she counts on chances. “I know her a bit, trained with her at the Australian Open. It will be important that I find my game, which is very physical. It’s a good draw, I see a chance for me,” said Grabher, who is eight places behind her opponent in the WTA ranking.
Opening game for Grabher
The local WTA tournament Upper Austria Ladies takes place in the Design Center in Linz. Austria’s tennis number one for women, Julia Grabher, has a wild card and will meet American Madison Brengle at the start.
Number one forward, number two out
Sakkari, meanwhile, has already reached the round of 16. The top seeded Greek defeated the Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz 6:1 7:6 (8/6) and now meets the Russian Varvara Gratschewa. Sakkari acted confidently in the first set and needed less than half an hour to lead. In the second set, Parrizas Diaz kept up and claimed seventh place in the world rankings. After a break, Sakkari served the match at 6:5, gave up his own serve, but then prevailed in the tie-break.
Ekaterina Alexandrova, seeded number two, has already been eliminated. The Russian lost to the Spaniard Rebeka Masarova after more than two and a half hours 6:4 1:6 6:7 (6/8). The Italian Camilla Giorgi, Linz winner of 2018, had no problems in the 6: 1 6: 2 against the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian. Croatia’s Petra Martic, who was seeded number six, also made it through to the second round with a 6:1 7:5 victory over Spain’s Marina Bassols Ribera and Russia’s Anastasia Potapova. The tournament number eight had to fight hard against Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti before she prevailed 2-6 6-3 6-4.
WTA 250 tournament in Linz
(Austria, €225,480, hard court)
