Jasmine Paolini and Emma Navarro, living up to their expectations as seeded players, swiftly won their first-round matches at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Tuesday evening. The WTA 500 indoor-clay event is currently taking place in Stuttgart, Germany.
No. 5 seed Paolini from Italy only needed 64 minutes to defeat Eva Lys with a score of 6-2, 6-1 in the evening`s opening match. This victory brings Paolini closer to repeating her quarterfinal appearance from the previous year.
World No. 68 Lys entered the Stuttgart tournament as the top-ranked German player for the first time in her career. However, this status wasn`t enough to overcome Paolini, who dominated the return games throughout their Tuesday match.
In her post-match interview on court, Paolini expressed her apologies to the German fans, who responded with supportive applause, saying, `[Lys] is such a nice girl, and I’m sorry [to] you guys. I have to do my job, as best as I can!`
Paolini demonstrated strong return game, winning 73 percent of the points on Lys`s first serve. The Italian player successfully converted 6 out of 8 break point opportunities. With this win, Paolini`s record against Lys improves to 2-0 (4-0 in sets).
World No. 6 Paolini is set to play against another German player, Jule Niemeier, a wild card entrant, in the second round. Paolini has a 2-0 head-to-head record against Niemeier, with both victories occurring in 2022.
Later in the evening, No. 7 seed Navarro of the United States made an impressive debut at the Stuttgart tournament. She confidently defeated Brazil`s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 6-0.
In their match, which lasted one hour and 16 minutes and featured two Top 20 players, Navarro hit 24 winners compared to Haddad Maia`s eight. Navarro capitalized on four out of nine break points and successfully held all her service games.
Navarro commented after her win, `I’ve had a lot of long matches this year, and a lot of three-setters. To get it done a little bit quicker feels good. I’m proud of my form… It’s my first tournament on red clay this year, so I’m leaning into it and having some fun out here.`
Despite losing to Haddad Maia twice on clay last year, Navarro achieved a complete reversal in their Tuesday match. The World No. 11 continues her pursuit of a second WTA 500 title this year, having already won the WTA 500 Merida trophy on hard court in March.
Unfortunately for Haddad Maia, this loss marks her ninth consecutive defeat since reaching the third round of the 2025 Australian Open.
Navarro is now preparing for her second-round match against a former Grand Slam champion. She will face Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 Roland Garros champion, for the first time in her career.
