Olympic champion Elena Dementieva began her warm-up for Wimbledon with a swift 6-2, 6-2 win over fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko at the Eastbourne International on Monday.
With the event including a men’s tournament for the first time, second seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia had to battle hard to beat Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Former women’s world No.1 Ana Ivanovic’s struggle to get back to the top continued when she lost a seesaw match with Russian seventh seed Nadia Petrova 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Serbian Ivanovic, who has dropped to 13th in the rankings, was in sight of victory at 4-1 up in the third set but double-faulted to allow Petrova to break and then surrendered meekly.
Top seed Dementieva, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year, looked to have a fight on her hands when Kirilenko saved three breakpoints in a 14-minute opening game which went to deuce seven times.
Kirilenko, who had lost in seven previous first rounds this year, buckled however as the set progressed and allowed Dementieva to go 5-2 ahead.
Dementieva, the world No. 4, twice hit double faults on set points as she struggled to serve in a capricious breeze but converted her third chance and then began the second set with a break.
Another break in the seventh game left her serving for the match and she finished off with a forehand winner as the clock at Devonshire Park reached one hour, 28 minutes.
“It is always fun to play on grass,” Dementieva, 27, told reporters. “It just takes a longer time before you really feel confident about the movement.”
“I think that was a good match for the first one on grass,” she said.
Fabrice Santoro progressed to the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over American Robert Kendrick.
Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun was another winner, downing Briton Colin Fleming in three sets. Lu took the first set on a tiebreak before the world No. 497 from Scotland fought back to take the second, dropping only one game. The Taiwanese No.1 prevailed 6-3 in the deciding set.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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