PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Lucie Safarova returned to winning ways by battling past Mariana Duque-Mariño at the J&T Banka Prague Open on Tuesday afternoon.

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Since returning from the bacterial infection that blighted the end of her 2015 campaign and forced her to skip the Australian Open, Safarova has found wins hard to come by. In fact, the Czech had fallen at the first hurdle at all five tournaments since making her comeback.

When she dropped the opening set to Duque-Mariño, another disappointment looked on the cards. However, perhaps buoyed by the home crowd, the No.2 seed fought back to complete a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in a fraction over two hours.

“I’m so happy because this is my first win this year in singles and obviously it means a lot,” Safarova said. “I was trying to be positive after coming back from this long sickness, but obviously it’s about the wins. That’s why I was so excited.”

Having dropped the first set, Safarova began her comeback midway through the second, a sliding drop shot in response to a net cord bringing the decisive break. She carried this momentum into the decider, breaking once more when Duque-Mariño sent a tired backhand long. The Colombian had her chances to get back into the contest, seeing several chances to draw level slip by in the sixth game as a relieved Safarova held on.

“I fought so hard and it wasn’t easy – I lost the first set but came back well in the second and played really well in the third,” Safarova added. “I hope to continue to play well here because the crowd was fantastic. It’s so nice to play in front of your home crowd and hopefully I can continue to do so for some more matches.” 

Fellow Czech Lucie Hradecka is next up after she saw off doubles partner Andrea Hlavackova, 6-4, 6-1.

Victories for Barbora Krejcikova, Barbora Strycova and 2015 champion Karolina Pliskova provided further cheer for the locals on another chilly day. Pliskova began the defense of her title with a straightforward 6-, 6-3 win over Stefanie Voegele, while Strycova saw off Olga Govortsova, 6-3, 7-5, and lucky loser Krejcikova made the most of her second chance by upsetting No.7 seed Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-2.