Amanda Anisimova passed her difficult opening-round test at the Western & Southern Open with flying colors, defeating world number 10 Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 6-4 on Monday. Ekaterina Alexandrova mounted a pair of comebacks to defeat No.13 seed Leylah Fernandez, 6-4, 7-5 in the first round. Alexandrova will face either Naomi Osaka or Zhang Shuai in the second round.
Playing her first tournament since Berlin, Alexandrova rallied from 3-0 down in the first set and 5-1 down in the second set to upend Fernandez and level their head-to-head 1-1. Fernandez served for the second set twice, but Alexandrova wiped out two set points to prolong the set, ultimately winning the last six games of the match.
Russia’s Kasatkina, who has beaten two of the world’s top-seven players in the past couple of weeks, had her serve broken six times by America’s Anisimova, thanks in large part to five double faults.
