For his return to competition, Alison Van Uytvanck won the first round of the ITF tennis tournament in Reims, a hard-court event worth $25,000 on Tuesday in France.
After eight months of absence to recover from a back injury, the 29-year-old from Grimbergen, down to 362nd in the world, beat the young 19-year-old Dutchwoman, Anouk Koevermans, 474th in the WTA rankings. The game lasted 2 hours 18 minutes and ended with a score of 6-3 and 7-5. Alison Van Uytvanck had not played since her defeat against Croatian Petra Martic in the second round of the WTA 250 tournament in Linz on February 9. The Belgian player, who was then 76th in the world, then suffered a double hernia in her lower back, which sidelined her for eight months. Alison Van Uytvanck, quarter-finalist at Roland-Garros in 2015 and winner of five singles titles, will be able to return to her rhythm on the circuit, since she benefits from a protected ranking – average of the player’s ranking during the first three month of her unavailability – which she will be able to use during eight tournaments over a period of one year. In the second round (round of 16) in Reims, Alison Van Uytvanck will face either the 22-year-old Czech Anna Siskova (N.5/WTA 236), or the Russian, from qualifying, Marina Melnikova (WTA 643), 34 years old. Another Belgian, Magali Kempen (WTA 87), 25, is also registered in singles in Reims where she is seeded N.4. Also in doubles, associated with the Latvian Diana Marcinkevica (N.3), Magali Kempen reached the milestone of the first round by dismissing another Belgian Ema Kovacevic, who was paired with the Frenchwoman Liv Boulard, with a score of 6-3 , 6-2.
2023-10-03 17:30:00
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