Kristie Ahn
The No. 1-seeded player at the Red Rock Pro Open was pushed to three sets, but Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck was able to hold off Southern California’s Kayla Day, who was a late addition to the main draw.
Celebrating her 17th birthday on Wednesday, Day won the first set, 7-5, before Van Uytvanck stepped on the gas midway through the second set to roll past Day, 6-3, 6-1. Day had lost her final qualifying match on Tuesday, but was inserted into the draw Wednesday morning as a “lucky loser” after another player was forced to withdraw because of an injury.
“She’s a good player and has a lot of potential,” Van Uytvanck said of Day, who last month won the US Open Junior Girls singles title and is the No. 1-ranked junior in the world. “We played a really big game at 3-all in the second set and I was able to win my serve and go up and felt after that she was doubting herself more.”
Van Uytvanck reached a career-high in singles 11 months ago as she got to No. 41 in the WTA world rankings. Currently at No. 103, Van Uytvanck is on the comeback trail after surgery on her right ankle and this is just her third tournament back.
Van Uytvanck, 22, has won 11 career professional singles titles, including a $50,000 Challenger in Stockton, California, earlier this year. She’s hoping to make it No. 12 in Las Vegas, a city she has never visited before this week. “It’s very nice here,” she said. “There are a lot of things to do and you can never be bored.”
Red Rock Pro Open defending champion Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands opened up her title defense with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Japan’s Mayo Hibi, a former Vegas semifinalist from a few years back.
Former Red Rock Pro Open champion and one-time US Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin is also recovering from injuries and was granted a wild card into the Vegas event. She fell to No. 2 Mandy Minella of Luxembourg, 6-3, 6-2, on Wednesday.
Former Stanford star Kristie Ahn had a nice little upset as she downed the No. 7-seeded Montserrat Gonzalez of Paraguay, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Other Americans moving into the second round included 17-year-old wild card Sonya Kenin and former USC All-American Maria Sanchez. Las Vegas resident Jovana Jaksic from Serbia eliminated another seeded player from Paraguay as she beat No. 5 Veronica Cepede Royg, 7-5, 7-5.
Wednesday’s First-Round Singles Scores
wc: wild card; q: qualifying; ll: lucky loser
Sonya Kenin (U.S.) [wc] def. Anna Zaja (Germany) [q], 6-4, 6-4
Alison Van Uytvanck (Belgium) [1] def. Kayla Day (U.S.) [ll], 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
Mandy Minella (Luxembourg) [2] def. Melanie Oudin (U.S.) [wc], 6-3, 6-2
Sesil Karatantcheva (Bulgaria) def. Alize Lim (France), 7-5, 6-3
Kristie Ahn (U.S.) def. Montserrat Gonzalez (Paraguay) [7], 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
Michaella Krajicek (Netherlands) def. Mayo Hibi (Japan), 6-1, 6-4
Fanni Stollar (Hungary) [q] def. Valeria Solovyeva (Russia), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) [q] def. Sophie Chang (U.S.) [wc], 6-1, 6-2
Laura Robson (Great Britain) def. Michelle Larcher de Brito (Portugal), 7-5, 7-6 (7)
Elise Mertens (Belgium) [4] def. Julia Elbaba (U.S.) [q] 6-4, 6-4
Nadia Podoroska (Argentina) def. Francoise Abanda (Canada), 6-4, 0-6, 6-4
Maria Sanchez (U.S.) [wc] def. Sherazad Reix (France), 6-3, 3-0, ret.
Jovana Jaksic (Serbia), def. Veronica Cepede Royg (Paraguay) [5], 7-5, 7-5
Wednesday’s First-Round Doubles Scores
Sophie Chang (U.S.) / Laura Robson (Great Britain) def. Mayo Hibi (Japan) / Laura Schaeder (Germany), 6-1, 6-0
Premier Sponsors include: Gaudin Porsche of Las Vegas, Storage One, Sunrise Hospital, Lotus Broadcasting, Cox Communications, WG Communications, Char Luxury Realty, USTA Nevada, SNH Inc., Rachel’s Kitchen, Marquis Aurbach Coffing, FedEx, and Harris & Harris Injury Lawyers.
Support sponsors include: Darren Cahill, Marcy Saxe, Guild Mortgage Company, Allstate Insurance agent Dwain Frazier, State Farm insurance agent Kate Lowe, The Massage Advantage, Wolf Rifkin Shapiro Schulman and Rapkin, Marty Hennessy Inspiring Children Foundation, Dr. Mir Majeed, Juverest and Sleep Master.
The tournament’s official website is www.RedRockProOpen.com. Follow along on Twitter @RedRockTennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/redrockproopen.
Photo Credit: Tracey Lee