Top seed Sloane Stephens of the US and second seed Alize Cornet of France were knocked out in the first round of the Strasbourg International on Tuesday.
Julia Goerges of Germany upset wild-card entry Stephens 6-3, 6-2, while Camila Giorgi of Italy overcame defending champion Cornet 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Goerges, a semi-finalist at the Pattaya Open in Thailand in February, did not face a break point. She broke for a 5-3 lead in the first set. Stephens dropped serve in the first and seventh games of the final set.
Photo: EPA
Cornet beat Giorgi in the Katowice Open final last month in Poland, but the Italian got her revenge on Tuesday, despite making nine double faults.
Andrea Petkovic of Germany, Peng Shuai of China and Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni also advanced to the second round.
Fourth seed Petkovic beat French wild-card entry Pauline Parmentier 6-3, 6-4; seventh seed Peng defeated Australian qualifier Ashleigh Barty 7-5, 7-5; while Lucic-Baroni stunned sixth seed Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-4, 6-0.
Petkovic led 5-0 in the opening set against Parmentier and 3-0 in the second. Lucic-Baroni offset seven double faults by saving all four break points she faced against Jovanovski.
US duo Christina McHale and Lauren Davis, Spanish qualifier Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Monica Puig of Puerto Rico also advanced.
McHale cruised past Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-1, 6-2; Davis dismissed Belarussian qualifier Olga Govortsova 6-2, 6-4; Puig edged Johanna Larsson of Sweden 7-5, 7-6 (7/5); and Soler-Espinosa beat Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) for the first time in five matches.
In the first round of the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan sisters advanced to the quarter-finals.
Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan saved three of four break-point chances and converted four of seven to wrap up a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Tatjana Maria and Paula Ormaechea of Argentina in 1 hour, 3 minutes.
The third-seeded Taiwanese duo were due to face Canada’s Francoise Abanda and Alicja Rosolska of Poland in the quarter-finals yesterday.
Additional reporting by staff writer
NUREMBURG CUP
AP, NUREMBERG, Germany
Top seed Angelique Kerber broke Marina Erakovic of New Zealand at the start of each set, winning 6-4, 6-2 in her Nuremberg Cup opener on Tuesday.
Second seed Eugenie Bouchard swept past qualifier Anastasia Rodionova 6-0, 6-1 in 45 minutes to advance to the third round.
Sixth seed Kurumi Nara of Japan crashed out in the second round, losing 6-4, 6-3 to Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.
Also in the second round, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Karin Knapp of Italy were winners.
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