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Former world number one Victoria Azarenka overcame a shaky start to beat Anhelina Kalinina 7-6(9) 7-6(5) in a grueling match at the Adelaide International 1 on Tuesday and reach the second round of the WTA 500 tournament.
Twice Australian Open champion Azarenka found herself in trouble trailing 5-1 but she summoned up her fighting spirit to save five set points before edging a tense tiebreaker.
The Belarusian secured an early break in the second set, but surrendered the advantage before winning another tiebreaker against her Ukrainian opponent to wrap up victory on her fifth match point and set up a meeting with China’s Zheng Qinwen.
“When you talk about first matches that are never easy this one was definitely at the top of the list,” Azarenka said. “I played an opponent who played really, really well today.
WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2022, Zheng saved a match point to battle past Anett Kontaveit 6-1 4-6 7-6(7), while former French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova upset eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6 6-3 6-2.
Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko later defeated former world number one Karolina Pliskova 6-1 6-3 to reach the second round.
