The Canadian with an Ecuadorian father dominated the Russian Yekaterina Alexandrova in the first round game.
The Adelaide WTA 500 tournament started this Monday and will count as a stellar match in the first round that will face on Tuesday the Spanish and current Indian Wells champion, Paula Badosa (4), with the Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka, precisely the victim of the Catalan in the final of the California Masters 1000 last November.
It will be the first level test for the Spanish tennis player born in New York after her apotheosis end of the season in which she won both the Indian Wells title and a creditable semifinals in the WTA Finals after falling to her compatriot Garbiñe Muguruza.
However, the main seed will be the world number one, Ashleigh Barty (1), who will have local support as an Australian and could face the American Coco Gauff in her first second round match in the event that this overcome a rival who will enter from the previous phase.
Up to a total of eight tennis players from the first fifteen classified in the ranking WTA will be present in the capital of South Australia.
The Czech Petra Kvitova will open her way against the local Priscilla Hon, one of the four Australians present in the final draw; while the name of the current champion, the Polish Iga Swiatek (5), fell in the same quarter of the box as Badosa, Azarenka and Kvitova, and could face in the second round the runner-up of the United States Open, the Canadian from Ecuadorian father Leylah Fernández.
Indeed, Fernández beat the Russian Yekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-4 on Monday in the first round.
The third-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari and the eighth seed Elena Svitolina of Ukraine will share the bottom of the draw with second-seeded Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. (D)
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