Swiss player Simona Waltert defeated Russia's Anastasia Tikhonova in the first round of the WTA 125 tournament in Adana 3-6 7-6(4) 6-3 to reach the second round. The event is played on hard courts with a prize fund of $115,000. Waltert is seeded third, while Tikhonova is playing unseeded.
Tikhonova took the first set 6-3. In the second set neither player could pull away, and the outcome was decided by a tiebreak. Waltert won it 7-4 to force a deciding set. There the Swiss player closed out the match 6-3, taking the contest 2 sets to 1.
Ranking and road to the match
According to rank.tennis, Waltert is ranked 105th with 695 points, while Tikhonova sits 249th with 290 points. The Russian arrived in Adana having won two matches there, against Aysegul Mert, 7-6(3) 6-2, and against Viktoria Hrunčáková, 6-1 6-2. Before that, in Ankara, she lost to Anastasia Gasanova, 2-6 4-6.
Before Adana, Waltert played in Montreux. There she beat Rebeka Masarova, 7-6(4) 3-6 6-2, and Despina Papamichail, 2-6 6-1 6-3, before losing to Dalma Gálfi in the quarterfinal, 2-6 2-6. Like her win in Adana, her match against Papamichail also came after dropping the first set.
The head-to-head now stands at 1-0 in favor of Waltert. Match statistics provided by api.tennis.