The women’s qualifier of the A1 Major Vienna started as many would expect as most of the top-seeded veteran teams won their opening matches at the Danube Island and will return to the courts later on Tuesday to try to secure their spot’s on Wednesday’s main draw at the Austrian capital.
Among them were reigning Olympic and former world champion Laura Ludwig of Germany, who alongside partner Maggie Kozuch defeated Greeks Konstantina Tsoupolou and Dimitra Manavi 21-11, 21-15 on their debut. The Germans will find another team from Greece in their way, the one of Vasiliki Arvaniti and Penny Karagkouni.
Fellow Germans Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider also won their first round match in Vienna as they downed Chinese Meimei Lin and Jinjin Zeng 21-14, 21-13 and will now face Finnish Taru Lahti and Annina Parkkinen.
Brazil was another country to see two teams moving to the second round of the qualifier in Vienna as top-seeded Maria Elisa Antonelli and Carol Salgado posted a 21-17, 21-13 victory over Spain’s Nazaret Florian and Claudia Maestri and Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima overcame Norway’s Ingrid Lunde and Sunniva Helland-Hansen also in two sets (21-10, 21-13).
Americans Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman confirmed their second seed and prevailed 21-9, 21-13 over Austria’s Franziska Friedl and Eva Pfeffer. They will now play Finland's Riikka Lehtonen and Niina Ahtiainen.
The most notable upset of the morning session in Vienna came by the hands of another Austrian team, the one of the Klinger sisters Dorina and Ronja, who, seeded 29th, eliminated fourth-seeded Russians Ekaterina Birlova and Evgeniya Ukolova with a 19-21, 26-24, 15-11 triumph. In the second qualification round, they will play another team from Russia - Ksenia Dabizha and Daria Rudykh.
