ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — American Amanda Anisimova made the best of her lucky loser ticket by beating Russian Liudmila Samsonova 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round of the Adelaide International to claim her first win in the main draw of a WTA tournament since August.
Anisimova reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year and is a former French Open semifinalist, ranked No. 29. But she had to make her way through qualifying and a lucky loser second chance to reach the second round of the Adelaide tournament.
The 21-year-old won only three games before losing to fourth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova in the first round at Adelaide last week, meaning she had to qualify for the main draw this week.
On Tuesday She took advantage of Samsonova's shaky serve who had seven double faults — she was broken five times — to advance to the second round where she will face Beatriz Haddad Maia.
On the men's side, American Tommy Paul beat Australian Christopher O'Connell 6-4, 7-5 in Paul's first match of the year. Paul reached the quarterfinals of both Adelaide tournaments last year.