June 4, 2019 – Tennis has come home! Bol is a well known and acknowledged international tennis center, and on Tuesday the WTA Croatia Bol Open began on the courts of the Bluesun Tennis Center. The 125 series WTA tournament is the strongest yet, and it is particularly interesting that all three former winners, Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella, Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunić and Slovenia’s Tamara Zidanšek are back on Brač. Zidanšek and Minella will play each other at the start, and their duel is scheduled on Wednesday.
Tuesday, the first day of the tournament, already offered some exciting clashes and a closer look at several players that could go to the end of this year’s competition. One of them is Slovakian Ana Karolina Schmiedlova who defeated Dutch player Bibiane Schoofs 6:1, 6:1. In the first round of Roland Garros, Scmiedlova faced the best female player in the world, Naomi Osaka. In the first set, she was up 6:0, though she lost in a tie break in the second, though overall it was a very close match. In Bol, however, she looks even better.
“I feel great here; this is my third time at the tournament. The tournament is wonderful and I believe that I can play well now. This was not my best game today, the result was good, but it was not that easy. At times it was very hot,” Schmiedlova said.
The night game on the Central Court, which was played from 20:30, featured Tereza Mrdeža who defeated Czech player Denisa Allertová 6:1, 6:0.
The interesting news of the night came from Tena Lukas, who will take the court in Bol on Wednesday. Namely, Marin Čilić has invited Lukas to the “Game, Set, Croatia” exhibition, which will be held in Zagreb on June 12th with a number of famous names like Luke Modrić and Ivan Rakitić. The revenue collected from the event is intended for the multifunctional sports ground of OŠ Tordinci.
1st Round
B. Schoofs (NED) – [4] A. Schmiedlova (SVK) 1:6, 1:6
A. Bogdan (ROU) vs [WC] M. Djakovic (SRB) 6:1, 6:3
[WC] A. Danilina (KAZ) vs [5] A. Sharma (AUS) 6:4, 2:6, 5:7
B. Haddad Maia (BRA) vs [2] S. Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 3:6, 4:6
A. Tatishvili (USA) vs [7] T. Bacsinszky (SUI) 2:6, 2:6
D. Allertova (CZE) vs T. Mrdeza (CRO) 1:6, 0:6
[6] J. Teichmann (SUI) vs I. Begu (ROU) 6:3, 6:1
V. Strakhova (UKR) vs N. Hibino (JPN) 3:6, 4:6
Doubles
Y. Bonaventure (BEL) / B. Schoofs (NED) vs D. Jakupovič (SLO) / T. Lukas (CRO) 6:4, 7:5
A. Bogdan (ROU) / C. Skamlova (SVK) vs [4] A. Danilina (KAZ) / Y. Sizikova (RUS) 4:6, 6:1, 10-6
L. Bošković (CRO) / M. Đaković (SRB) vs O. Danilović (SRB) / T. Zidanšek (SLO) 0:6, 0:6
You can read more about the tournament here.
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