Noskova too strong for Muguruza, Cornet eliminated - Monday's WTA recap

Monday was the start of main draw first round in two WTA 250 tournaments going underway in Hua Hin and Lyon. The most interesting action took in Lyon, where two entitled names dropped out of the tournament just after the start.

Linda Noskova defeated Garbine Muguruza, eliminating the former Grand Slam champion 6-1 6-4 in just 74 minutes. 17-years old Czech who reached her career's best 56th place in the WTA ranking today was the thoughest possible pick from all the qualifiers and it was clear that it will be a difficult task for Muguruza to win her first match in 2023 year. The finalist of this year's WTA Adelaide 500 tournament has started the match playing a flawless tennis, winning the first set 6-1 in 25 minutes not facing any single breakpoint on her serve. The Spaniard has tried to fight back in second set, earning the early break, but she lost her advantage with a re-break for Noskova and did not convert 5 breakpoint chances in 6th game. Young Czech regained her momentum after this strong hold, breaking her more experienced opponent once again later and winning the whole match in dominant style. It's 6th loss in a row for Muguruza who can even fall out of the top 100 in rankings in a few weeks, if her bad series of losses will not find the end soon.

One of two big local favorites is already out of the tournament, as Alize Cornet faced an upset losing with Camila Osorio in three sets 4-6 6-4 1-6. Cornet fought back after miserable first set, by moving the match into the whole distance, but deciding set has no big story as experienced French player dropped the ball with losing 3 of her service games quite easily.

Meanwhile, the action in Thailand Open started from the win of Lin Zhu, one of the sensations of Australian Open who reached out the Round of 16 in opening Grand Slam of the season. The Chinese defeated her fellowcountry, tournament's seed #3 - Xiyu Wang, 4-6 6-3 6-0. Another interesting three-setter was played between Su Jeong Jang and Katie Boutler. The South Korean made quite a surprise, defeating Boutler 6-3 4-6 6-3.