6 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece outlasted Russian qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Monday in Russia. Down 5-3 in the deciding set, Sakkari survived a match point and broke Diatchenko for the seventh and eighth times to force the tiebreak. Sakkari raced to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak and finally advanced on her third match point. Zheng converted five of 10 break points and won 71.8 percent (28 of 39) of the points on her first serve. Kostic won only 10 points during the second set and finished with five double faults.

Source: National Post February 10, 2020 17:15 UTC