The Croatian Petra Martic, the first favorite, the Estonian Anett Kontaveit and the Italian Camila Giorgi advanced with a firm step this Tuesday to the round of 16 in the thirty-first edition of the Palermo tournament Ladies Open, which marks the return of WTA tennis after more than five months, in a day in which the young Slovenian Kaja Juvan gave the surprise by striking the Czech Marketa Vondrousova, second favorite.
After a player's positive triggered alarms last Saturday, the security and control measures implemented by the WTA have allowed tennis to become the protagonist in Palermo, in a club that allowed the entrance of 350 spectators, of the 1,500 capacity, in the central court.
Confirmed her role as first favorite on Palermo clay Petra Martic, world number 15, who took just 61 minutes to beat Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0 6-3, which reached the main draw after going through the rankings.
The Croatian player, semifinalist this year in Dubai and fourth finalist last year at Roland Garros, will face each other in the round of 16 with the classified Russian Liudmila Samsonova, who struck Belgian Kristen Flipkens 6-4 and 6-2.
If Martic uncontestedly resumed the competition, the negative surprise came from Elise Mertens, fifth seed, who surrendered in one hour and 24 minutes to Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, number 119 in the ranking, by 6-4 and 6-1.
The Belgian, who had already fallen against this rival in Cincinnati 2017 and Toronto 2018, wasted a 3-1 in the first quarter and from there melted to suffer the overwhelming 6-1 final.
Sasnovich, who entered the main draw after spending three qualifying rounds and eliminated the Spanish Laura Arruabarrena, will be measured in the round of 16 with the Italian Jasmine Paolini.
The young Slovenian will not easily forget this day Kaja Juvan, who achieved her first career victory at 19 years of age against a top 20 rival in the world ranking by defeating Czech Marketa Vondrousova 1-6, 7-5 and 6-4 after a battle of two hours and 30 minutes in the clay of Palermo.
And that the start of the game, against a Vondrousova, finalist last year at Roland Garros, which took just half an hour to win the set 6-1, seemed to turn the match into pure formality.
But Juvan showed character, and more than once. He escaped 4-0 in the second set and, after his rival's forceful comeback to 5-4, he had the strength to prevail 7-5 and sentence the duel in the decisive set, finishing 6-4.
Great win for Juvan, who this year had already sealed a luxury victory against former US World No. 1 Venus Williams and that he entered the main draw of Palermo after going through the qualifying rounds.
His rival in the round of 16, scheduled this Wednesday, will be Italian number 1 Camila Giorgi, who chained a streak of six consecutive games after a timid start to the game against the Swedish Peterson.
Giorgi triumphed 7-5 and 6-1 in an hour and 39 minutes of the game in which he started giving up the serve and being behind 1-3 on the scoreboard before growing with his powerful baseline game and chaining a streak of six straight games that allowed him to close 7-5 the first set and take a 4-0 lead in the second, finished 6-1.
The Italian player, former world number 26, confirmed the great start of the tournament for local players in Palermo, after Jasmine Paolini, Eleonora Cocciaretto and former world number 5 Sara Errani will also advance to eighths.
Estonia did not fail Anett Kontaveit, who beat Romanian Patricia María Tig 6-3 and 6-3 in one hour and 35 minutes. It will be measured in eighths with the German Laura Siegemund, who eliminated the Romanian Irina Begu on Monday.
Finally, the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, eighth favorite, defeated the French Kiki Mladenovic and met in the eighths with the French Fiona Ferró, winner this Tuesday against the Argentine Nadia Podoroska.