China Open: Iga Swiatek makes winning debut as Jelena Ostapenko advances

Iga Swiatek opened her China Open campaign with an all-court victory, defeating Sara Sorribes Tormo in straights sets.

World No.2 Iga Swiatek advanced to the second round of the China Open after defeating No.55 Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3 on Monday. Making her tournament debut at the WTA 1000 event in Beijing.

“For sure, today I felt really confident and comfortable because I’ve been practicing that a lot,” Swiatek said. “I’m pretty proud of my performance at the net because, technically, I feel like my volley has changed. I’m really happy with that.

“I think against some players it’s kind of necessary to go to the net, and today that was that kind of a match.”

“You have to be patient with her because she’s running for every ball,” Swiatek said. “I kind of wanted to just be solid and be intensive but not make too many mistakes with risking.”

The world No.2 Iga Swiatek will face France’s Varvara Gracheva next.

After coming through a well-contested three-set win over Eva Lys in the first round on Sunday, 13th seed Jelena Ostapenko advanced to the Round of 16 on Monday via walkover.

The Latvian was set to face Linda Noskova in the second round but the Czech teen was forced to withdraw due to illness.

Ostapenko will face either No.4 seed Jessica Pegula or Anna Blinkova next.