Romania's Tig, Begu progress to Phillip Island Trophy 3rd round

Romanian tennis players Patricia Tig and Irina Begu on Monday advanced to the women's singles third round of the 235,238- USD Phillip Island Trophy WTA 250 tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six-year old Tig, world number 56, defeated in the second round British Francesca Jones, 20, world number 245 WTA, 6-1 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes. In the qualifying round, Jones, who because of a genetic condition has three toes on her right foot, four on her left, and four fingers on each hand, also defeated Romanian Monica Niculescu, 33, world number 146, 6-2 6-2. In the third round, Tig will place Swiss Jil Teichmann, 23 years old, world number 58, who in the first round prevailed over Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-3, and in the second round she defeated on Monday lucky loser Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-2 in 68 minutes. In her turn, Tig's compatriot Begu, 30, world number 74, defeated in the second round Russian Ana Blinkova, 22, world number 63, 6-3 6-2 in an hour and 10 minutes. The two were tied in the head-to-head count, with Begu winning in the round of 16 singles at the WTA Hobart Draw, 4-6 7-6 (2) 6-2, and Blinkova, 22, world number 63, in the same years, in the round of 36 at WTA W100 Ilkley, Great Britain, grass court tournament, 6-2 6-3. In the third round, Begu will face off twenty-nine-year-old Chinese Qiang Wang, world number 34, who won their only meet so far, in the round of 64 of the 2018 US Open, 6-3 6-1. For their performance in the tournament, Tig and Begu won 2,700 US dollars and 30 WTA singles points each. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Tenea, editor: Mihai Dragomir; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)