Timea Babos wins at home at Hungarian Ladies Open

Top-seeded Timea Babos had no issues in her first-round match at the Hungarian Ladies Open on Tuesday in Budapest, Hungary.

Playing in front of the home fans, Babos dominated Ipek Soylu of Turkey 6-3, 6-2 in her first-round match. The Hungarian needed only 80 minutes to oust Soylu.

"I'm just happy to play here at home," Babos said. "It's very special for me, it motivates me a lot -- I'm very happy to have this first win."

It was the first win for Babos at this event since 2013 and ended a puzzling string of opening-round defeats dating to October 2016.

"It was not an easy season so far for me," Babos said. "I started to play better at the St. Petersburg Ladies Open, but I played a lot of top-30 players. I lost some tough three-setters.

"But then I had Fed Cup, which helped a lot. I played very, very consistent and I beat some top-30 players and started to feel better."

Second-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and No. 3 Julia Goerges of Germany advanced to the semifinals with a pair of dominating victories.

Safarova overpowered Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan 6-2, 6-1 in 56 minutes while Goerges also needed under an hour to eliminate Croatia's Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-2.

No. 8 seed Annika Beck also moved into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Hungarian qualifier Fanny Stollar.

Qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus advanced to the quarterfinals with a stunning 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over sixth-seeded Pauline Parmentier of France.

In other first-round matches, fourth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania lost in straight sets to Carina Witthoeft 6-3, 6-2. Seeded winners were No. 5 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium and No. 7 Oceane Dodin of France.