EASTBOURNE, England (AP)—Australia’s Samantha Stosur, coming off a loss in the French Open final to Francesca Schiavone, defeated Melanie Oudin 6-4, 6-4 Monday at the Aegon International.
Stosur eliminated an American opponent who last year beat Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon to reach the fourth round as a qualifier.
“I was very pleased with it,” Stosur said. “Melanie had a great Wimbledon last year and obviously likes playing on grass, so to get through that one in straight sets, I’m really happy.
Eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France struggled past Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-4, 7-5 in this Wimbledon tuneup.
Among the men, third-seeded Gilles Simon of France made a successful return from a knee injury. Playing his first match since March, Simon downed Russia’s Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4 for his first victory this year.
American James Blake, who has dropped to No. 110 following a similar injury and absence from the tour, failed to match Simon on his comeback and was beaten 7-6 (3), 7-5 by fourth-seeded Julien Benneteau of France.
Oudin dropped the opening set after losing her serve at 2-2 on a forehand error. Stosur struggled at the start of the second set, hitting five double-faults after breaking to lead 1-0. She dropped the next four games and faced a break point for 1-5 that she saved with an ace before coming back.
The Australian hit three aces to make it 4-4. She made a winning volley at the net to break for 5-4 before serving out for the match.
“I lost my serve and maybe started going for a little too much, and things can turn around pretty quick on grass and before you know it you’re 4-1 down,” Stosur said. “But I was able to turn it around.”
She said it took her a while to get over her defeat to Italy’s Schiavone in Paris.
“It was tough. The next couple of days when I had a chance to switch off and not think about tennis, it always kept cropping up,” she said. “But since coming here and starting to practice again and playing today, you can’t keep dwelling on a match that happened nine days ago.”
In other matches, sixth-seeded Horacio Zeballos of Argentina edged Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, and eighth-seeded Michael Llodra of France topped Martin Emmrich of Germany 6-0, 6-3.