BASTAD, Sweden – No.4 seed Annika Beck came through a tight encounter with Sorana Cirstea to secure a second-round spot at the Ericsson Open.

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Last week in Gstaad, Beck slumped to a shock defeat at the hands of World No.797 Rebeka Masarova, but bounced back with a 7-5, 7-5 win in her opening match in Sweden.

“It was quite a tough match – I expected it because Sorana is a great player and she had some great results on clay this year,” Beck said. “It was the first time I ever played her but I got some tactics off my coach and I knew what to do.”

In a match of fine margins, Beck’s greater consistency at the conclusion of both sets proved decisive. Having hauled herself back into the opening set, Cirstea looked well set to complete the comeback only to hand back the break with a wayward backhand. Beck duly closed out the set and despite weathering a barrage of winners in the second set, held her nerve to close out victory. 

“She was defending really well and made my life really tough out there on court, especially in the second set – she was just going for winners and basically hit all the lines – I was just trying to stay in the match and fight.”

Reaction of @BeckAnnika after defeating @sorana_cirstea in front of Hollywood star Hugh Grant pic.twitter.com/uw9uy7ebOj

— Swedish Open Tennis (@swedish_open) 19 July 2016

Also advancing in the bottom half of the draw were Beck’s fellow seeds Sara Errani and Johanna Larsson. No.2 seed Errani produced a confident display to defeat Cagla Buyukakcay, 6-2, 6-3, while No.8 seed and defending champion Larsson came through her all-Swedish clash against Rebecca Peterson, 7-6(3), 6-2.

Another former champion to advance was Mona Barthel, who was leading 4-6, 6-3, 3-0 when No.7 seed Yaroslava Shvedova retired with a back injury.