1124 STEPHENS SAFELY CLEARS FIRST HURDLEAmerican ninth seed Sloane Stephens, who had crashed out in the opening round in the previous two years, breezed past Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-2 6-4 in her tournament opener. Also advancing to the second round were Belgium’s Elise Mertens, who beat Fiona Ferro 6-2 6-0 and China’s Wang Qiang who eased past Vera Lapko 6-2 6-2. Lesia Tsurenko, the 32nd seed, fell 6-3 6-2 to Barbora Strycova. Holder Angelique Kerber begins her campaign on Centre Court against German compatriot Tatjana Maria at 1200. (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar and Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by)

Source: National Post July 02, 2019 10:09 UTC