AFTER nearly two full years away, 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady played her first competitive match and dominated Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) in Washington.
Brady, a 28-year-old from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sidelined by knee and foot injuries since the summer of 2021. Back at full strength, she needed just 68 minutes to beat Kalinina, ranked No. 28 in the world, by winning a whopping 18 of 20 first-service points (90 percent) and converting six of nine break-point opportunities.
Two other Americans won, with Hailey Baptiste defeating Czech foe Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 and Peyton Stearns topping Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-4.
Romania’s Sorana Cirstea won a marathon second-set tiebreaker to take down Petra Martic of Croatia, 6-3, 7-6 (13). Martic led 6-3 before Cirstea saved three straight set points; Martic eventually failed on seven occasions to close it out before Cirstea pushed ahead for good.
In evening matches, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez eliminated the United States’ Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-5, and seventh-seeded Madison Keys of the U.S. topped China’s Qinwen Zheng 7-5, 6-1.
