Barbora Zahlavova Strycova strolled to her eight victory of 2015 with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Yanina Wickmayer. This was the first match i’ve watched from Antwerp and as many others are commenting on Twitter, it’s awfully dark. There was a pretty sombre vibe coming from the centre court and it didn’t sound like there was a great deal of spectators from the echos. Hopefully the atmosphere will build during the week. Unfortunately, Wickmayer didn’t give her home crowd much to get excited about. After a positive start, she became firmly entangled in the BZS web. Zahlavova Strycova played a very smart match although she didn’t have to do a great deal other than soaking up the pressure and letting Wickmayer implode. On another day, Wickmayer’s positivity may have paid off; however on this occasion, Zahlavova Strycova consistently made Wickmayer play that extra ball which was all too often netted or hit long by the Belgian player.
Wickmayer committed 17 unforced errors in the first set and her numbers continued to rise sharply in the second set as Zahlavova Strycova threatened the double break. Wickmayer managed to stem the flow of errors for a time as she got on the board and had her first break points on the BZS serve. The Czech player won the majority of the big points in this match and after saving break points to go up 6-2 4-2*, she won the next two games to seal the win in 73 minutes. Wickmayer finished with 11 winners and 31 unforced errors.
Zahlavova Strycova will play Alize Cornet in the second round after she defeated Belinda Bencic, 1-6 6-2 7-5 in the most entertaining match of the day in Antwerp. BZS v Alize… BRING. IT. ON.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
And Kerber didn’t make the Top 3 in the poll to win the tournament? Hmm.
Today’s match that also made an impression on me was the one between Klara Koulakova and qualifier (!) Francesca Schivone. Koukalova was crying so much! Lost 6-3 6-1.
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Koukalova is a loser as always. This is not the first time she is crying.
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Kerber’s now joint third in the poll. It’s pretty close for Antwerp, there’s no clear favourite.
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Bencic is not having a great start to 2015 is she? I wonder if all of the hype has been too much for her, and she needs a year to just be bad so that she can regroup and smash it. It tends to happen on the ATP quite a bit where talented juniors burst on the main tour and then after a successful year they struggle for a year or two.
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Bencic’s progression last year was so rapid that a lot now is expected of her. I keep having to remind myself that she’s only 17. I think she’ll be OK. I still think it’s a bit early to make judgements about her start to 2015. We’ll see where she is after IW-Miami…
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Wickmayer and Bencic gave their matches away. Wickmayer was flying the balls every where. In fact, she could beat Barbie if she kept the balls playing. For Bencic, what a shame indeed. Cornet is overrated and she should have lost this match.
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Cornet is one of those players when if all of her game comes together, she’s difficult to stop. It just doesn’t happen very often.
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I’ve just read this morning that Wickmayer had been struggling with inflammation of the shin since Australia which may explain her performance yesterday.
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