Birmingham WTA Champion Ostapenko Knocked Out in First Round

AFP/APP

London: Reigning champion Jelena Ostapenko lost in the first round of the Birmingham WTA tour event on Monday as she went down in straight sets to Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

The Latvian, ranked 13th, won her second career title on grass last June but she fell 6-3 6-3 at Edgbaston Priory to Cocciaretto, who still needed seven match points to defeat the 2017 French Open champion.

Cocciaretto will face another Grand Slam singles winner from seven years ago in the second round when she takes on Sloane Stephens of the United States.

Former US Open champion Stephens beat China’s Yuan Yue 6-3, 6-3.

In other matches, Laylah Fernandez — runner-up to Britain’s Emma Raducanu in the 2021 final at Flushing Meadows — saw off Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-1, 6-1.

Third seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea lost 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 to China’s Zhu Lin.

Both seventh seed Anastasia Potapova and two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic made it through to the next round.

Britain’s Katie Boulter, fresh from retaining her title in Nottingham — another Wimbledon warm-up event — is set to make the short journey across the English Midlands to begin her Birmingham campaign against Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine on Tuesday, with former world number one Caroline Wozniacki also scheduled to play.