While capricious weather was disturbing both the players and fans during yesterday's first round matches of WTA 250 tournament in Auckland, today it was quickly understood, that the hope for improvement is pointless. The organizers stated before the start of the day, that there is no chance to proceed the day session in scheduled way, and all the matches will be moved indoors, without the possibility to host any audience there. During the day, it has occured that also evening session matches were not possible to be played outdoors. All the fans with tickets booked were assured with 100% payback for this inconvenience.
Two big names from United States were into action under the closed roof and door today. Sofia Kenin, who fights back to find her form and ranking after long-term injuries, were facing Xinyu Wang - top 100 player from China. Despite some shaky start, exchanging breaks between each other, Kenin managed to get into tie-break. Former AO champion was on the way to lose this set being 0-5 down in tie-break, but she fought back somehow to catch-up the score and take the lead winning it 8-6 at the end. Second set was a show of much better confidence from Kenin, who was serving well and broke her opponent once, reaching the R16 with score 7-6 6-4. Serving performance was quite impressive, as US player had 77% first serve accuracy. The next match-up for Kenin will be more than interesting, as she faces Cori Gauff in all-American clash.
This strange resulted completely different for Sloane Stephens. Another US Grand Slam champion did not mange to hurdle Rebeka Masarova. Stephens started her match miserably, allowing Masarova to make up advantage and win first set. The American was playing quite better in second set, but did not manage to serve out the setball with 5-4 on the board. It was decided in the tiebreak, when Masarova started well and did not bottle her win against titled opponent, utilizing 4th matchpoint and checking in the next round.
