Saville secures second-round spot in Madrid | 25 April, 2024 | All News | News and Features | News and Events [Video]

Madrid, Spain, 25 April 2024 | Matt Trollope

Daria Saville has made the most of her eleventh-hour entry into the Madrid Open, beating Hailey Baptiste to progress to the second round.

Saville overcame the American qualifier 6-4 7-6(5) to set up a meeting with 20th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 2021 Roland Garros finalist.

Saville fell in the final round of Madrid qualifying but was awarded a lucky loser entry to replace the injured Karolina Pliskova.

Her victory over Baptiste marked her first main-draw win in the Spanish capital since 2016, the year she progressed to the quarterfinals.

Saville, who rises to a projected ranking of No.86 following her latest win, has split two career meetings with Pavlyuchenkova, although they have not played since 2017.

She was the lone Australian winner in first-round matches in Madrid, with Thanasi Kokkinakis, Aleksandar Vukic and Alexei Popyrin all exiting the tournament.

Kokkinakis, dominant in two qualifying winsto reach the main draw, pushed Jack Draper to the limit …