On the heels of a good start to the summer, Clara Burel qualified for the round of 16 of the Lausanne tournament by beating Olga Danilovic in straight sets.
There will be at least two French women in the round of 16 of the clay-court tournament in Lausanne! As Diane Parry and Fiona Ferro face off in the first round in the afternoon, Clara Burel also secured her place in the second round. The world No. 84 knocked out No. 105, Olga Danilovic, as she had already done in the final round of Australian Open qualifying.
The 22-year-old Breton won 6-4, 6-4 in 1h40 of play, after a match interrupted for several tens of minutes by the rain. Even if he was not very comfortable serving, with three double faults and three breaks conceded, Burel took advantage of his opponent’s weakness in this area as well (four double faults, 52% of first serves) to take his faceoff five times.
Burel will face the faller of Jeanjean
The first set was full of twists and turns, with Danilovic coming from 0-2 to 2-2, before losing three games in a row. The Serb then erased one of her late breaks to come back to 3-5, but Burel broke again before concluding on her first set point. In the second, the two players broke each other in the first two games (1-1), then the Frenchwoman saved a ball from 4-2, and it was finally her who managed the break at the best moment, at 4-4.
She then signed a shutout on her serve to win this match and afford a round of 16 against Emma Navarro, who crushed Léolia Jeanjean 6-0, 6-0 in 53 minutes. Mas Burel is certainly in great shape, having played in the semi-finals in Strasbourg just before Roland-Garros, then won the ITF tournament in Montpellier during the second week of Wimbledon, before playing the quarter-finals in Palermo last week. With only 201 points to defend by the end of the US Open, the Breton can hope to climb the rankings!