Short Linz guest appearance by young stars Koller and Kostic

Unfortunately, Kraus' compatriots Tamara Kostic and Arabella Koller both had no chance in their qualifying matches on Sunday.

The Viennese Kostic sold herself dearly on her debut on the WTA Tour against Clara Tauson, winning four games against the 21-year-old Danish young star. Afterwards Kostic, who celebrates her 18th birthday on Monday, was happy and grateful to have been in Linz. "It's always nice to play a home tournament. I'm definitely proud of my performance, thank you for your support, it helped me a lot," said Kostic, taking stock of the 2:6 and 2:6.

The 23-year-old Koller, who had won the "Young Ladies Wildcard Challenge" beforehand, didn't win a single game against Erika Andreeva. The player from Salzburg had no chance against her opponent's powerful service, losing both rounds 0:6.

Linz regular Anna-Lena Friedsam had to work hard over three sets. The German, who had reached the semi-finals in Linz in 2014 and even the final in 2015, was almost overrun 2:6 in the first set by the top seed Greet Minnen from Belgium in qualifying, only slowly found her way into the match and secured the second and third sets 7:6 (4) and 6:4.

Friedsam's compatriots Jule Niemeier and Ella Seidel also cleared the first qualifying hurdle. Niemeier beat Harriet Dart from Great Britain 7:6 (7) and 6:2. The 18-year-old Seidel from Hamburg sensationally defeated Magdalena Frech from Poland, the number 51 tennis player in the world.
 
Alycia Parks, on the other hand, did not have a good evening. After an initially convincing match, the 23-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, suffered health problems, had to concede the second set almost without a fight and ultimately lost to the Italian Lucrezia Stefanini 7:5, 1:6 and 4:6 in two and a half hours. 13 aces didn't help Parks either, Stefanini successfully countered with tremendous footwork and solid baseline play.

Monday's action at the Design Centre Linz starts at 11 a.m. with the qualifying finals. The first match in the main competition will be played no earlier than 2 pm between the Italian Martina Trevisan and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 2015 Linz winner.