Defending champion Julia Goerges lost to Laura Pous-Tio of Spain 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 in the opening round of the Gastein Ladies on Tuesday.
The 16th-ranked German, who won her second WTA title in Stuttgart in April, was the top-seeded player after Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova pulled out last week.
Goerges dropped the opening set against the 94th-ranked Pous-Tio after double-faulting on set point. She recovered to quickly take the second, but lost serve twice in the decider.
Photo: EPA
Earlier Tuesday, second-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia was upset by Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-4, 6-2.
The 29th-ranked Gajdosova, who comfortably beat Larsson on her way to winning the Hobart title in January, served 10 double faults and was broken six times.
The seventh seed, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic, lost to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 7-6 (9-7), 6-2, and No. 5 Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain was beaten by wild card Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria 6-0, 7-6 (7-5).
Photo: EPA
Third-seeded Lucie Hradecka and fourth-seeded Iveta Benesova went out on Monday, which meant eighth seed Ksenia Pervak was the only seeded player to reach the second round so far. The Russian beat Alize Cornet of France 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
In a late first-round match, sixth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania was set to play Austria’s Sybille Bammer yesterday.
Also, 2007 finalist Yvonne Meusburger of Austria, Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Kristina Barrois of Germany advanced to the second round.
Photo: AFP
PALERMO OPEN
AP, PALERMO, Sicily
Fresh off her third title of the year, second-seeded Roberta Vinci beat Kazakh qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva 6-2, 7-5 in the opening round of the Palermo Open on Tuesday.
Vinci’s victory in Budapest on Sunday made her the first Italian woman to win three titles in one year, and she is threatening Flavia Pennetta to become the second-best ranked Italian after Francesca Schiavone.
Schiavone is ranked No. 8, Pennetta is No. 21 and Vinci is up to a career-best No. 23 this week.
Third-seeded Sara Errani of Italy beat Regina Kulikova of Russia 6-1, 6-3.
Also advancing were fourth-seeded Klara Zakopalova, fifth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues — a four-time winner of this clay-court tournament — seventh-seeded Polona Hercog and eighth-seeded Petra Cetkovska.
SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, Sweden
Eighth-seeded Potito Starace of Italy advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open in Bastad when he beat Germany’s Julian Reister 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 on Tuesday.
Starace will next face Jonathan Dasnieres De Veigy of France, who had to work hard to defeat Swedish wild card Andreas Vinciguerra 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.
Spain’s Pere Riba and Guillermo Olaso also advanced, along with Michael Ryderstedt, who lost both singles matches in Sweden’s Davis Cup quarter-final loss to Serbia last weekend.
Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic beat France’s Julien Benneteau 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, while Argentina’s Diego Junqueira ousted Igor Andreev of Russia 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-4 to set up a second-round match with top-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden.
MERCEDES CUP
AP, STUTTGART, Germany
Santiago Giraldo of Colombia upset second-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4, 7-5 on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the Mercedes Cup.
Giraldo beat Melzer for the first time in three attempts. The Colombian reached the final in Santiago in February, also on clay.
In another upset, German wild card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe celebrated his first victory on the ATP tour when he beat sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
The 20-year-old German, who comes from near Stuttgart, lost his only other tour-level matches in the first round — at Halle and Wimbledon. Both were on grass.
Davydenko was twice a semi-finalist in the clay-court tournament in Stuttgart.
Third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who captured his first career title in Stuttgart in 2002, eased past Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-3.
Jeremy Chardy of France, who won the tournament in 2009, beat Germany’s Tobias Kamke 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.
Two Spaniards, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Pablo Andujar, also advanced, along with Lukasz Kubot of Poland, Fabio Fognini of Italy and Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia.
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