WTA Melbourne: Petkovic and Barthel with opening wins
There were two wins for the German tennis players in Melbourne when they returned to the court after 14 days of corona quarantine.
by SID
last edit: Jan 31, 2021, 12:57 pm
Andrea Petkovic made it into the second round of the Gippsland Trophy with a 6: 1, 3: 6, 7: 5 against the Italian Martina Trevisan, as did Mona Barthel (Neumünster) in the Yarra Valley Classic. Barthel won 7-5, 6-3 against the Düsseldorf-born Australian Kimberly Birrell.
Since arriving down under, the tennis professionals had been looking forward to the new start. They were allowed out a maximum of five hours a day for training and treatment - the rest of the time they had to kill in the hotel room with series, video games or workouts. Now the hot phase of preparation for the Australian Open (from February 8th) has begun.
The men will start playing on Tuesday with the ATP Cup. At the start for Germany are Alexander Zverev (Hamburg), Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) and the French Open winners Kevin Krawietz / Andreas Mies (Coburg / Cologne) in doubles.
Barty, Osaka, Halep in action
While the three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber (Kiel) is not yet at the start, the top stars have split between the two competitions. At the Yarra Valley Classic, world number one Ashleigh Barty is at the top.
For the Australian, it is the first tournament since a break of almost a year. If you reach the semi-finals, you will have a duel with Serena Williams (USA). At the Gippsland Trophy there could be a duel between Simona Halep (Romania) and Naomi Osaka (Japan) in the final.