Back on court in New Haven, the world No. 40 will need all the luck she can get from rubbing the lucky Yale statue toe when she faces Petra Kvitova on Wednesday.
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18-year-old Croatian qualifier Ana Konjuh also reached the second round with a straight sets 6-0, 6-3 win over American lucky loser Kayla Day and will meet second seed Roberta Vinci.
She now faces Ekaterina Makarova of Russian Federation who won her second-round match on Tuesday.
The two-time Wimbledon victor and a bronze medallist in the Rio Olympics, won 10 straight games on Wednesday after falling behind 3-1 in the first set.
The Czech star – a three-time Connecticut Open victor – has not lost in New Haven since going down to Simona Halep in the 2013 decider.
Petra Kvitova was made to work hard for her victory over qualifier Louisa Chirico. She won the bronze medal at the Olympics.
The 22-year-old out of the woods at appropriate times, no yielding of the five break points offered to his opponent after qualifying 42nd World racket, and capitalizing itself four times in seven occasions.
“I love to play here in New Haven, I have great memories here from a year ago”, she said. Vinci will face Sweden’s Johanna Larsson, a 7-6 (1), 6-4 victor over American Shelby Rogers 7-6 (1), 6-4. “And now I’m in quarterfinals, for the first time, so I’m so happy. I will try my best for tomorrow”.
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Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska will face Flipkens in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
