Klugman advances at Wrexham Open as Blinkova rallies from 5-1 down

Hannah Klugman reached the second round of the Lexus Wrexham Open with a 6-2 6-2 victory over American Fiona Crawley on Tuesday, while top seed Anna Blinkova recovered from a substantial second-set deficit to advance. BBC Sport reported the opening-round results from the tournament at Wrexham Tennis and Padel Centre, where Lizette Cabrera also won.

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Klugman, the 17-year-old British player ranked 209 in the world, gave a positive assessment of her performance afterwards. She said she had started well and that Crawley's game had given her time to construct points. However, she also felt the contest had been more closely fought than the score suggested, despite conceding only four games across the two sets.

The win takes Klugman into the next round of an event where she has previously reached the quarter-finals. That run came when the W100 tournament was staged in Shrewsbury. Her involvement this week also extends beyond the singles draw: she is competing in the doubles alongside fellow British player Daniella Britton, according to BBC Sport.

Blinkova had a more difficult route past Lithuania's Andre Lukosiute. The world number 72 won the first set 6-4 but then fell 5-1 behind in the second. She recovered to force a tie-break and won it without conceding a point, completing a straight-sets victory after Lukosiute had moved within one game of levelling the match.

Britton's singles campaign ended with a three-set defeat by Australia's Cabrera. The British wild card lost the opening set 6-4 before responding with a 6-2 second set. Their deciding set went to a tie-break, with Cabrera coming through to secure a 6-4 2-6 7-6 win. Britton remains involved in doubles with Klugman.

Reigning champion Mimi Xu is absent from the title defence. The Swansea player has instead chosen to compete at the W75 Saguenay tournament in Canada. Wrexham's schedule continues with first-round singles and doubles on Wednesday, followed by second-round singles on Thursday. The singles quarter-finals are scheduled for Friday, the semi-finals for Saturday and both the singles and doubles finals for Sunday.