Schoofs surprises Witthoeft again; Vandeweghe wins

Bibiane Schoofs had an excellent start at the Libéma Open 2018. The wildcard player defeated Carina Witthoeft, who is placed 99 places higher on the world rankings, on court 1 in two sets: 6-4 7-5.

It was a remarkable achievement because it was the 30-year-old home player’s second defeat of the the world’s number 75 from Germany. The previous meeting took place on clay. Schoofs’s victory is her first one on WTA-level since 2013.

To advance to the next round on the Brabant grass, Schoofs has to beat seventh seed Aleksandra Krunic from Serbia or qualifier Valentini Grammatikopoulou.

Two-time Libéma Open champion CoCo Vandeweghe also reached the second round. The top seeded American defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovic from Belarus in two sets: 6-2 7-6(1)

The next opponent for Vandeweghe will probably be Arantxa Rus, who will have to beat Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova first.