Well done, Petra! Our tennis player won the WTA 1000 tournament for the first time. They will play against the Swiss

Petra’s next opponent will be a 29-year-old Swiss woman Belinda Benčič (WTA – 12th) who, as the 11th seed, was free in the first round. It’s great 20-year-old woman from Zagreb opened her debut appearance in Madrid and won the first set in 26 minutes, leaving her peer from Andorra without a game.

The situation began to change in the second set, which Jimenez Kasintseva opened with her first ‘break’ in the match and held that advantage until the eighth game, in which Marinko took her opponent’s serve for the fourth time in the match and tied the match at 4-4. Petra saved one break point in the next game, and when Jimenez Kasintseva served to stay in the match in the 12th game, the Croatian tennis player made her sixth double fault on the second match point and “gave” Marinko a place in the second round.

– The feeling is excellent. My first victory here, I’m so happy about it, said the Zagreb woman in her first victory interview on the court.

– I knew that the first set was not realistic, that there would still be a lot of fighting. I kept calm, I believed in my game and in the end it turned out well, added Petra, who will have the highest-ranked tennis player she has ever played against in her next match.

Olympic winner from Tokyo 2021 and winner of ten titles, Swiss Belinda Benčičis currently ranked 12th in the individual WTA rankings, and was also ranked fourth in the world.

– Access that medium like any other. I will go out on the field and try to play the best I can, said Marinko, who will be on the field again on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the top-ranked Croatian tennis player, 23-year-old, will perform in Madrid Antonia Ružić (WTA – 59th), and her opponent in the first round is a Romanian Gabriela Ruse (WTA – 71.).