Future trivia answer: the winner of Austin's first-ever ATX Open match was Katie Volynets

Immediately after a decisive third-set win in the opening match of the inaugural ATX Open, Katie Volynets tried to grasp the moment.

“It’s not often that you get to play the first main draw match of a brand new tournament,” Volynets said. “It’s pretty special and I’m trying to savor it.”

Volynets, who jumped into the WTA top 100 rankings at No. 92 following a third-round showing at this year's Australian Open, overcame a second-set rally by Ali Riske-Amritraj to advance with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 win.

After Volynets held serve to open the final set, Riske-Amritraj fell behind 15-40 after a pair of double faults. She rallied back to deuce, but Volynets secured the break with a pair of well-placed service returns. From there, the 21-year old dominated, capping off the win with a pair of forehand passing shots that Riske-Amritraj could only watch sail past.

More: Former Texas star Peyton Stearns in the field of this week's inaugural ATX Open

Volynets served consistently, returned aggressively and kept Riske-Amritraj from rediscovering her second-set rhythm.

“I just tried to put everything into each point,” Volynets said. “I wanted to move more explosively and be more aggressive (in the third set) and that worked well.”

Volynets took particular advantage when Riske-Amritraj missed her first serve. Volynets won 62% of the points when given a second serve to work with. She translated that into six service breaks, including three in the final set. And she took control of a tight first set when Riske-Amritraj’s serve deserted her for a stretch.

Trailing 4-3, Riske-Amritraj double-faulted on three successive points to gift Volynets a 5-3 lead. Volynets closed out the set quickly.

The second set turned when Volynets’ serve deserted her for a spell. Serving while trailing 2-1, Volynets suffered three double faults and Riske-Amritraj pounced to open up a 5-1 lead with a barrage of winners that kept Volynets on the run. Riske-Amritraj closed out the set at 6-3 to force the deciding set but couldn’t overcome Volynets’ aggression in the final set.

Volynets advances to face the winner of third-seeded Anastasia Potapova and Elizabeth Mandlik.

Bjorklund upsets the tournament's No. 7 seed

And in another match, after upsetting No. 7 seed Alycia Parks, Sweden’s Mirjam Bjorklund knows her status as a fan favorite this week may be brief.

Following her 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win in which fans urged her opponent on, Bjorklund received a very warm reception from the crowd. When informed that her second-round opponent could be Texas-ex Peyton Stearns, Bjorklund knew what would face her.

“Well, I don’t think I’ll have the crowd behind me in that case,” she admitted.

Stearns, who helped Texas to back-to-back NCAA titles before turning pro, indeed got past Great Britain's Katie Boulter on Monday night, a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 (7-5) win. So she'll meet Bjorklund next.

Bjorklund battled her way through against the hard-serving Parks.

“I felt like I just went for it,” she said. “It was a match where I was never too comfortable in it, but I did what I knew I had to do. My mental game was really strong today. I felt like I didn’t budge. I knew I had to stay in the match. That is and was something that is very important.”

Namely, Bjorklund had to fight off Parks’ serve, which consistently approached 115 mph.

At 4-4 in the opening sent, Bjorklund took advantage of a pair of Parks’ double faults to take a 5-4 lead, then fought off two break points to hold serve and claim the set.

The second set followed a similar path. Parks held serve to take a 5-4 lead and then turned the pressure up on Bjorklund’s serve. She hit three solid backhands to earn a break point and won the set with a forehand winner deep into the corner.

Both Parks and Bjorklund overcame early deficits to hold serve to open the deciding set before settling down. With Parks serving at 3-3, a pair of untimely errors after Bjorklund was able to get her return of serve in play led to the break that ultimately decided the match.

“Once I got the upper hand at that point, I just knew I had to keep it and I was able to do that,” she said. “It’s always like that in a battle like this one. There’s no room to mess up. At this level of tennis, this is how it is — a couple of balls can decide things.”

Bjorklund consolidated the break with a comfortable hold to lead 5-3 and put the pressure on Parks by getting 80% of her first serves in during the final game. She clinched the match with a solid serve wide to the forehand that Parks couldn’t return.

“It was a very tight match with a big server like her,” Bjorklund said. “I tried to stay in it and at 5-4 in the end it went my way.”

Other singles winners on Monday were Heather Watson over Danka Kovinic, the doubles team of Parks and Sloane Stephens over Marta Kostyuk and Dayana Yastremska, the doubles team of Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery over Harriet Dart and Alexandra Panova, the doubles team of Ingrid Neel and Olivia TjandramuLia over Quinn Gleason and Elixane Lechemia, and the doubles team of Anna-Lena Friedsam and Nadiia Kichenok over Adrienn Nagy and Lena Papadakis.

The win continued the success that Bjorklund’s found in Austin after winning the 2021 HEB Women’s Pro Tennis title, and ITF event held at the Texas Tennis Center. That win secured her a wildcard entry into the ATX Open — as it did 2022 winner Stearns.

Bjorklund knows Stearns could be waiting and will be ready.

“We are similarly ranked and we’ve entered this tournament the same way,” Bjorklund said. “But for us, we’re just opponents trying to go out and get the most out of the week. No matter who I play, it won’t be easy and we’ll have to battle it out.”

ATX Open

Through Sunday, Westwood Country Club

Tuesday's matches: Stadium court — 10:30 a.m., Harriet Dart vs. (2) Shuai Zhang; (1) Magda Linette vs. Varvara Gracheva; Taylor Townsend vs. (5) Sloane Stephens; 6 p.m., Madalena Frech vs. (4) Danielle Collins; Caty McNally vs. Ashlyn Krueger. Grandstand — 10:30 a.m., (3) Anastasia Potapova vs Elizabeth Mandlik; (6) Lauren Davis vs Anna Kalinskaya; Madison Brengle vs Louisa Chirico; 2:30 p.m., (8) Marta Kostyuk vs Dalma Galfi; Dayana Yastremska vs Anna-Lena Friedsam; Robin Montgomery vs Coco Vandeweghe. Court 10 — noon, Gumulya/Hsieh vs Chavatipon/Zeynalova; Hibino/Ninomiya vs Blinkova/Sizikova

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Katie Volynets wins first-ever match of WTA's ATX open in three sets