Mattek-sands survives in Florianopolis

Bethanie Mattek-Sands battled back from a deep second set hole to make it past Mandy Minella and survive her first round test at the Brasil Tennis Cup in Florianopolis.

The No 5-seeded American was trailing 4-1, 15-0 in the third set but came very alive from there, winning 20 of the next 22 points to completely run away with the rest of the 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

"Mandy played very well today. She was hitting the forehand very well," Mattek-Sands said.

"When she was up in the third set I really had to fight hard and play well to come back."

The match lasted a grueling two hours and eight minutes.

"I'm still sweating!" Mattek-Sands commented. "It's very humid here in Florianopolis, though it's not quite as hot as it was earlier in the year in Rio. So the conditions were nice. And it was also nice to have some friends come out and watch me today - hopefully they will come and watch me tomorrow!"

The other seeds in action during the day had mixed results, with No 3 seed Annika Beck rolling past Brazilian wildcard Carolina Alves, 6-1, 6-2, and No 7 seed Laura Siegemund beating Marina Melnikova, 6-2, 6-1, but No 6 seed Louisa Chirico falling to resurgent Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, 6-1, 6-4.

Beck, one of the leading WTA Rising Stars, is also enjoying the warm conditions.

"I really enjoyed my time on court today," the German said. "It's different than home - it's more humid, hotter than Germany. But I like this place. The facilities are good and so is the organisation.

"It's my second time playing here in Florianopolis and I'm really enjoying myself."

The last seed to take the court was No 4 seed and home favourite Teliana Pereira, who missed out on four set points up 6-5 in the first set and then had to battle for three hours and four minutes to finally make it past tenacious Argentine María Irigoyen in an absolute marathon, 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-5.

Rounding out the first round winners were Risa Ozaki, Verónica Cepede Royg, María-Teresa Torró-Flor, Ana Bogdan, Tereza Martincova, Elitsa Kostova, Gabriela Ce and qualifier Andrea Gámiz