Americans McHale, Gibbs Reach Monterrey Second Round
Americans Christina McHale and Nicole Gibbs set up an all-American second-round matchup at the Abierto Monterrey Afirme as both picked up victories in their Monterrey openers on Tuesday.
McHale took out Mexico’s Victoria Rodriguez 6-0, 6-4, needing less than an hour to do so. McHale won 83 percent of all points in the opening set, including converting on all three of her second serve points as well as nailing down three break points.
In the second, Rodriguez found her game on serve in the second but it wasn’t enough. McHale was able to secure a late break to close out Rodriguez and advance.
In the second-round, McHale will face off with fellow American Nicole Gibbs.
The former Stanford standout upset seventh-seed Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 7-5, 6-2.
After sneaking out the first set with a late break, Gibbs played nearly flawless tennis in the second set. She converted on both of her break points, won 75 percent of her first serves and didn’t allow a single break point chance on her own serve.
McHale has won the only previous meeting between these two on the WTA Tour, a three-set triumph at the 2014 Cincinnati Masters.
French qualifier Pauline Parmentier knocked out three-time champion and third-seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-2 to book her spot in the second-round.
“I played a really good match,” said Parmentier afterwards. “It wasn’t tight at all in the beginning; I played really good with the spin on the forehand and she had a problem with that. I’m really happy to win this match.”
Parmentier will take on Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig next. Puig ousted Marcela Zacarias 6-2, 7-5 on Tuesday.
The other upset of the day saw Polona Hercog take out eighth-seeded Hungarian Timea Babos 6-3, 6-2.
Yanina Wickmayer, Kirsten Flipkens, and Julia Glushko all moved on to the second-round with victories on Tuesday as well.
