Heather Watson of Great Britain dropped her first set but rallied to defeat No. 2 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the first round of the Thailand Open on Tuesday in Hua Hin, Thailand.
Watson led the final set of the three-hour marathon 5-3 before Putintseva charged back to force the tiebreaker. Watson jumped ahead 5-1, but Putintseva rattled off four straight points to tie it. Watson then broke Putintseva's serve and won on the following point.
Top-seeded Bianca Andreescu of Canada was also in action and swept past Great Britain's Harriet Dart 6-3, 6-4. Russian fourth seed Anna Kalinskaya needed just 45 minutes for a 6-1, 6-1 victory over countrywoman Ekaterina Makarova.
No. 5 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, No. 6 seed Tatjana Maria of Germany and No. 8 seed Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic all won their matches. Russia's Anastasia Zakharova needed three hours and five minutes to take down Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Open 6e Sens-Metropole
No. 1 seed Caroline Garcia of France hit eight aces and saved six of eight break points to battle past the Czech Republic's Tereza Martincova 6-4, 7-6 (4) in first-round action in Lyon, France.
Second seed Shuai Zhang of China also won, using an even 60 minutes to eliminate American Madison Brengle 6-3, 6-2.
No. 7 seed Danka Kovinic of Montenegro defeated Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic 6-1, 6-4, while eighth seed Anna Blinkova of Russia retired due to an apparent injury, allowing countrywoman Erika Andreeva to advance. Blinkova trailed 4-0 in the third set at the time.
Alycia Parks of the United States, France's Clara Burel and Hungary's Anna Bondar also advanced.
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