China's Peng Shuai (
Peng was joined in the last 16 by Slovenian seventh seed Katarina Srebotnik, the only ranked player in action on the opening day, who recorded a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russia's Olga Poutchkova.
The 21-year-old Peng played corner-to-corner against the taller Bovina, frequently wrong-footing her opponent into errors with an intelligent and aggressive game honed by her new coach, former world No. 2 Michael Chang (張德培).
"It's just a good way to start," Peng told reporters. "She hits hard, so I tried to hit hard first. She is a big girl, so I tried to move the ball around."
At world No. 62, Peng is China's second-ranked player and is making a comeback after suffering a serious ankle injury in early May.
"I'm feeling much better," she said. "I'm trying to learn what my real game is and Michael is helping me with that. He was a real fighter and I would like to be like that, too."
Srebotnik was upset in the first round of two previous tournaments in which she was seeded eighth or higher. The 25th-ranked Srebotnik reached the third round of all three Grand Slam events this year. Poutchkova lost her fifth straight.
Eleni Daniilidou of Greece outlasted Amber Liu of the US 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in a later match that lasted more than two hours.
"Amber was getting a little tired and I was way more aggressive than her beginning in the second set," the 41st-ranked Daniilidou said. "I really couldn't see in the first set; there were shadows on the court."
Daniilidou plays top-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the second round tomorrow.
In other matches, Meilen Tu of the US beat Meghann Shaughnessy, 7-6 (3), 6-1 to reach the second round for the 11th time in 13 tournaments, and Lilia Osterloh beat fellow US player Jill Craybas 6-2, 7-5.
Osterloh advances to meet second-seeded Marion Bartoli, while Peng meets third-seeded Daniela Hantuchova.
Davydenko makes early exit
Gilles Simon of France held on to upset world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in their Croatia Open first-round match on Monday.
Simon led 5-0 in the final set, but Davydenko saved four match points to rally to 5-3. The Russian had eight break points in the next game, but Simon held serve for the best win of his career.
It was Davydenko's third defeat in a row in the first round in as many weeks.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia scored his 100th victory by beating qualifier Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-1, 6-3 in his first match on clay since the French Open semi-finals.
In the second round, Djokovic -- who retired with a finger blister in the semi-finals at Wimbledon -- will meet either Viktor Troicki of Serbia or Predrag Rusevski of Macedonia.
Also moving to the second round were Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, defeating countryman Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4; Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat Mathieu Montcourt of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-1; Pere Riba of Spain, defeating Luka Belic of Croatia 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain, who defeated Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-0, 6-4.
Querrey snaps losing streak
Struggling US player Sam Querrey snapped a seven-match losing streak here on Monday on the opening day of the US$525,000 ATP Indianapolis Championships.
The 91st-ranked Californian thrashed 60th-ranked Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 in just under 90 minutes for his first victory on clay since April 29.
RSS