Monastir Open: Mertens advances to second round

Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 5 seed, beat Romanian Jaqueline Cristian 6-1, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Monastir Open at the Monastir Tennis Club on Monday.

Mertens, ranked No 42, will face Greek qualifier Despina Papamichail next.

Monastir WTA 250, other first-round results:

• Varvara Gracheva vs. Veronika Kudermetova
• Yasmine Mansouri vs. Magdalena Frech
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Diane Parry
• Harriet Dart vs. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
• Tamara Zidansek vs. Marina Bassols Ribera
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Mirra Andreeva
• Moyuka Uchijima vs. Kamilla Rakhimova
• Petra Martic vs. Linda Fruhvirtova
• Evgeniya Rodina vs. Elena-Gabriela Ruse
• Ons Jabeur vs. Ann Li
• Laura Pigossi vs. Alize Cornet
• Claire Liu beat Ana Konjuh (Q): 6-3, 6-2
• Lucrezia Stefanini (Q) beat Magda Linette (8): 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Despina Papamichail beat Lin Zhu: 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0
• Katerina Siniakova (7) beat Chloe Paquet: 6-4, 4-0 ret.