The first round of the Hobart International culminated in Mona Barthel’s straight sets win over Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. The only first round tie of the day, with qualifying still ongoing and the bigger seeds playing tomorrow, the German, Barthel, dismissed the challenge of her lower ranked opponent in just over an hour.
Two of the rising stars of the WTA, the two players came into the match on relatively poor run of forms, with Barthel losing four matches in a row at the tail end of last season and was dismissed in the first round of Auckland last week. But, she has begun 2014 with a flurry in a match full of breaks. A cumulative sixteen break opportunities between them, the sixth seeded German squeeze out the victor as she won sixty percent of those presented to her.
While the match may have been interrupted by some torrential rain for over two hours, this didn’t stop some relatively high levels from the two youngsters, as they both looked to set themselves in good stead for the year ahead.
However, the crowd were treated to the appearance of former world number one, Martina Hingis, who played fellow Swiss, Belinda Bencic in a fun fought exhibition, with Hingis the victor after sneaking through a champion’s tie set, 10-6.
Results
Mona Barthel d. Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-3