Anett Kontaveit advanced to the second round of the Gstaad Ladies Championship with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Maria Sakkari.
Kontaveit gets only break of the set in the final game to take the lead
Kontaveit has the bigger serve of the two, but it's blunted a bit by the clay. Most of the service games in the set were tough, each player having a break point, but wasting it: Sakkari in the fifth game, Kontaveit in the game right after that. As the set progressed, service holds became easier for both players: over the first six games, three of them went to deuce with the returner winning 17 points.
Over the next five games, none went to deuce, four were holds to love or 15 and the returner won just five points. Kontaveit managed to sneak out a break in the 12th game, winning the final three points to take the set 7-5 and assume a one-set lead.
Kontaveit runs away with the second set to advance
The start of the second set was atypical to the start of the first with competitive games, each player holding and after Kontaveit saved a break point in the third game, she would break the set and, subsequently, the match, open with a couple of breaks to take a 5-1 lead.
Sakkari is a fighter and battled on the Estonian's serve despite the situation looking bleak. She got to deuce on Kontaveit's serve in the fifth game and forced her to close out the match on her third attempt, the 6-1 set score a bit misleading as many of, if not all, the games were close, the more experienced Kontaveit using that characteristic to pull through.
By the numbers
There weren't many break chances in the match, but Kontaveit took hers well, converting on 3/4 while Sakkari was 0/2. This was their third meeting of the season, with all three matches now ending in straight sets, Kontaveit winning two of the three, previously triumphing in Indian Wells while Sakkari won in Miami. A total of 54 games have been played by the two against one other with Kontaveit winning 29 and Sakkari taking 25.
Next opponent for Kontaveit not yet known
Kontaveit will get a day off before her second round match on Wednesday and as of this time, it is unknown who that opponent will be. The Estonian will face the winner of the match between Swiss wild card Rebeka Masarova, a finalist at the French Open in the girls competition and second seed Jelena Jankovic, who accepted a wild card into this event. Masarova and Jankovic are scheduled to play on Tuesday.