PALERMO, August 2, 2020
After nearly five months without tennis, WTA players returned to action last weekend with the qualifying of the 31st Palermo Ladies Open.
World No. 172 Nadia Podoroska from Argentina was the first competitor to secure a match win in this mid-pandemic era. The 23-year-old defeated Hungarian Reka-Luca Jani 6-3, 6-1 after one hour and sixteen minutes on a sunny and hot Saturday afternoon in Sicily.
In the final round of qualifying Podoroska will take on Oceane Dodin of France. Aleksandra Sasnovich from Belarus will meet Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena for a spot in the main draw. Liudmila Samsonova from Russia will play Laura Iona Paar of Romania and Slovenia’s teenager Kaja Juvan will face Martina Trevisan in Monday’s final qualifying encounters.
Main draw kicks off Monday
In the meantime, the main draw for Palermo Ladies Open has been announced. World No. 15 and the tournament’s top seed Petra Martic of Croatia will open her title bid against Alison van Uytvanck from Belgium. No. 2 seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic will face a qualifier. The winner of the encounter will play either Italy’s Camila Giorgi or Swedish Rebecca Peterson.
“It feels great, I really missed it!”
No.1 seed @PetraMartic1991 is raring to go at the @LadiesOpenPA! pic.twitter.com/Kvim5CED0Q
— wta (@WTA) August 2, 2020
“Personally, I’m just happy to be here. I’m happy to see that it’s possible to actually start again because still a week or two ago I didn’t believe it, to be honest,” Martic is looking forward to get back to competition.
Other local favourites in action include World No. 44. Sara Errani, who will take on Romanian Sorana Cirstea, currently ranked 75 in the world. Elisabbetta Cocciaretto will play Slovenian Polona Hercog, Word No. 45 and finalist in Palermo in 2011. Jasmine Paolini will oppose Russian Daria Kasatkina, former top 10 and now ranked World No. 66. Laura Siegemund, lone German player at Palermo’s Country Time Club, will open her WTA Tour re-start campaign against Irina-Camelia Begu from Romania.
The first Main Draw after five months 👀#PLO20 @wta pic.twitter.com/ESFCo35gdR
— Palermo Ladies Open (@LadiesOpenPA) August 1, 2020
