Irina Begu qualifies for 2nd round of Melbourne Summer Set 2 (WTA)

Romanian tennis player Irina Begu defeated on Tuesday American Jessica Pegula, 7-6 (6), 6-3, the main seed of the Melbourne Summer Set 2 tournament (WTA 250), with total prizes of 239,477 dollars, Agerpres reports.

Begu (31 years old, 62nd in the WTA rankings) won against the American (27 years old, 18th in the WTA) after one hour and 45 minutes, in her first match in 2022.

Begu got her second victory over Pegula, after 7-5, 6-1 in 2020 at the WTA 125 tournament in Indian Wells.

Irina Begu has secured a check for 3,675 dollars and 60 WTA points, and her next opponent will be Italian Jasmine Paolini or Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

Instead, Irina Bara (26, 138th in the WTA) was defeated in the last qualifying round by Russian Ana Kalinskaia (23, 111th in the WTA), 7-5, 6-2, after one hour and 26 minutes.

Bara received 1,950 dollars and 12 WTA points.

Also on Tuesday, Sorana Cirstea, the number five seed in Melbourne Summer Set 2, will face Russian Varvara Gracheva.