Emiliana Arango of Colombia upset defending champion Maya Joint 7-6(2), 6-4 in the first round of the Lexus Eastbourne Open on Monday, claiming the first tour-level grass-court victory of her career and reaching the second round at the WTA 250.
The world No. 101, who came through qualifying with wins over Alycia Parks and Sofia Johnson, needed one hour and 31 minutes to see off the Australian on an outside court at Devonshire Park. Arango edged a tight opening set in a tiebreak, then broke decisively in the second to close out the match.
A first on grass. The result marked new territory for Arango, whose strongest showings have come on clay and hard courts. She reached a semifinal on home soil in Bogotá earlier this season and owns a career-high ranking of No. 46, set last October. Grass had been her least productive surface, and she had never won a main-draw match at tour level on it before Monday.
A champion in freefall. For Joint, the defeat extended a season to forget. The 20-year-old, who lifted the Eastbourne title a year ago by beating Alexandra Eala in the final, arrived on a lengthy tour-level losing run and will slide outside the top 80 when the rankings update. Her title defense ended in the opening round, surrendering the bulk of the points she banked at Devonshire Park twelve months ago.
The Latin American grass thread. Arango’s win adds to a notable week for South American tennis on the surface. Francisco CerĂşndolo became the first Argentine to win the title at Queen’s Club on Sunday before withdrawing from Eastbourne, while the men’s draw on the South Coast features several seeded South Americans, among them Joao Fonseca and Tomás MartĂn Etcheverry. For a region long defined by clay, the grass swing has delivered a cluster of breakthroughs heading into Wimbledon, which begins June 29.
Next up. Arango will play her second-round match on Wednesday, with a place in the quarterfinals on the line. A deeper run would push her back toward the top 80 and bolster her seeding picture for the North American hard-court stretch to come.
