Katie Boulter overcame points along with her serve to edge previous Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4 6-4 within the opening spherical of the Merida Open.
The British No 3 landed solely 36 per cent of her first serves towards her out-of-form opponent, who has now misplaced six of her seven matches in 2026.
In contrast, Boulter gained her most up-to-date event on the Ostrava Open, however nonetheless regarded out-of-sorts in Mexico as she made 38 unforced errors and had her serve damaged 5 occasions in a contest which lasted virtually two hours.
The primary 4 video games of the match went towards serve earlier than Haddad Maia finally held, though it was Boulter, who held within the sixth and tenth video games to take the opening set.
The 29-year-old broke twice extra to race right into a 3-0 lead within the second however skilled extra issues along with her personal serve, finally taking a second match level after hitting a ninth double fault on the primary.
“I just tried to keep believing in what I’d been doing,” Boulter mentioned.
“Clearly very totally different circumstances from what I have been enjoying in just lately and I simply needed to alter and maintain preventing.
“I’ve had many battles with Bea and she’s an incredible player and she never gives you anything so it was a long match… I’m pleased I got through that.”
Norrie suffers fast defeat in Mexico
Cameron Norrie’s Abierto Mexicano Telcel marketing campaign lasted simply 56 minutes as he misplaced 6-3 6-2 to Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar.
A decent first set was determined when Jodar took a second break level within the eighth recreation to guide 5-3 then served out the opener.
A whirlwind second set was something however aggressive as Jodar, a former junior US Open champion, reeled off 5 video games in a row – a run throughout which he misplaced solely two factors.
