Riske advances in Wimbledon tuneup
NOTTINGHAM, England – Seeded players Karin Knapp and Ajla Tomljanovic lost in the first round of the Nottingham Open on Monday as top-level women’s tennis returned to the central England grass-court venue for the first time in 42 years.
The fourth-seeded Knapp lost 6-4, 6-2 to Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, and Tomljanovic, the No. 8 seed from Croatia, was beaten 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5 by Lauren Davis of the United States.
Other winners before rain arrived late in the afternoon were Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Bojana Jovanovski and Ana Konjuh.
When play resumed, fifth-seeded Alison Riske of the U.S. completed a 6-3, 6-4 win over China’s Saisai Zheng.
Riske, a Peters Township native, is currently ranked 48th in the world. She will face 58th-ranked Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round, with the winner of a second-round match between Bojana Jovanovski and Yanina Wickmayer waiting.
Lucic-Baroni defeated Stefanie Voegele 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in her opening-round match.
Riske will make her sixth appearance at Wimbledon later this month. She has reached the round of 32 in each of the last two years.
No. 13 Agnieszka Radwanska is the only member of the world’s top 20 playing in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament, and is looking to rebound from a first-round loss at the French Open. ed on the main tour, in 1973.