Dutch women can’t surprise

Isis van den Broek and Anouk Koevermans failed to reach the second round. The Dutch women, who both started their match as underdogs, fell short on Wednesday morning against their more experienced opponents.

Koevermans faced a nice showdown with Maria Sakkari, the former world number three. Although the wildcard player from Berkel came back from a break deficit in the first set, she had to let the Greek win 6-3 6-4. In the second set, there was only one service break.

Van den Broek had qualified nicely under her own steam for the main tournament and a draw against a fellow qualifier seemed hopeful at first for the 19-year-old talent. But Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse, world number eighty, was still clearly too strong in an hour: 6-2 6-1.