Stellenbosch, South Africa - Despite rain and windy conditions at the start of play on the opening day of the Digicall Futures 1 tennis tournament being played in Stellenbosch, play finally got underway with seeded players Ekaterina Makarova (RUS, 3) - pictured - and Geoffrey Blancaneaux (FRA, 2) booking their spots in the second round.
This is the first of three back to back Digicall Futures international tennis tournaments taking place at the Coetzenburg courts at the Stellenbosch University.
Makarova made easy work of her match against South African Lize-Alet Morkel by winning 6-2, 6-2. A local favourite – even though she is Dutch – Eva Vedder also advanced to the next round without too much hassle by winning her match against Rochelle Pienaar from South Africa 6-1, 6-2. Vedder is well known in local circles and has been a regular visitor to Stellenbosch since the days she played in the Curro Junior ITF Tournaments.
The upset of the day was when qualifier Yasmine Wagner from Germany eliminated the second seed Nicole Nadel (ISR) with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.
In the men’s draw Blancaneaux needed just more than an hour to beat Jesse Flores (CRC) 6-2, 6-2.
Top seeds for the tournament are in the women’s singles Maya Tahan from Israel and Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock in the men’s singles. South African Davis Cup player Nic Scholtz – winner of two of last year’s three tournaments – is seeded third.
Remember you can follow the scoring at the ITF Live Scoring page http://live.itftennis.com/en/live-scores/ and even watch some Live streaming of the action at http://live.itftennis.com/en/live-streams
