San Diego Open: 19-year-old qualifier Stakusic scores first WTA main draw win

In a battle between qualifiers, 19-year-old Marina Stakusic, of Canada, advanced to the second round of the San Diego Open by beating 35-year-old Marina Melnikova, of Russia, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 at the Barnes Tennis Center on Tuesday.

This was the first WTA main draw win for Stakusic, who won 3 ITF singles titles in the September-October period last year.

The 19-year-old Stakusic was part of the Canadian Billie Jean King Cup team last year where she won three of her four singles matches, beating players ranked inside the world’s top 60. She also won the deciding rubber against Martina Trevisan in the final against Italy, leading Canada to their first title in the competition.

Stakusic, ranked No 283, will play the winner of the match between Croat Donna Vekic, the No 7 seed, and American wildcard Katherine Hui next.

San Diego WTA 500, other first-round matches (Barnes Tennis Center, hard, USD 922,573):

• Daria Saville (Q) beat Lin Zhu: 6-3, 6-3
• Jule Niemeier (Q) beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-3, 6-0
• Katie Boulter beat Lesia Tsurenko: 6-3, 6-1
• Caroline Wozniacki vs. Anna Blinkova
• Donna Vekic vs. Katherine Hui
• Taylah Preston vs. Magdalena Frech
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Tatjana Maria
• Mai Hontama vs. Katerina Siniakova
• Caroline Dolehide vs. Dayana Yastremska
• Ann Li vs. Marta Kostyuk
• Clara Tauson vs. Xinyu Wang

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