Cabrera into Guangzhou second round
Lizette Cabrera, a qualifier into the main draw, won her third match in a row in Guangzhou with a straight-sets first-round victory over China's Gao Xinyu.
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 20 September 2017 | tennis.com.au
Lizette Cabrera has continued her impressive week at the WTA event in Guangzhou, China, winning through to the second round.
The Australian was too strong for Gao Xinyu of China, winning 6-3 7-5.
In the battle of the qualifiers, Cabrera won in one hour and 39 minutes to set up a second-round showdown with third seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia.
It’s just the second WTA main-draw win of the 19-year-old’s career, and comes after two wins in the qualifying draw.
With this result, Cabrera is expected to rise to a new career-high ranking of No.143.
Fellow Aussies Sam Stosur and Arina Rodionova fell at the first hurdle.
Stosur, seeded No.7 and in just the second tournament of her comeback from a right-hand stress fracture, fell 6-7(6) 6-3 7-5 to Han Xinyun, while Evgeniya Rodina got the better of Rodionova 7-6(3) 3-6 6-0.
At the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Daria Gavrilova went down 2-6 6-0 7-6(3) to Polish qualifier Magda Linette in the first round.