Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung cruised into the second round of the doubles at the Internationaux de Strasbourg on Monday, while top seed Sara Errani was ousted in the singles.
Second seeds Chuang and Darija Jurak of Croatia eased to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Nadia Podoroska of Argentina and Jil Belen Teichmann of Switzerland in just 63 minutes on the red clay in France.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved six of seven break points and converted five of 10, winning 58 of the 92 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against Nicole Melichar of the US and Alicja Rosolska of Poland, who advanced with a walkover when their opponents pulled out before their first-round clash.
In the singles, Errani suffered another setback in her French Open preparations when she lost to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.
It was the third straight tournament Errani has lost in the opening round.
The poor run prompted the Italian, who won in Dubai in February, to seek and receive a wild card into Strasbourg to try and improve her confidence for the French Open starting on Sunday.
Since Errani lost the 2012 French Open final to Maria Sharapova, she has reached the semi-finals once and quarter-finals twice.
Defending Strasbourg champion Samantha Stosur, seeded third, defeated US qualifier Lauren Davis 6-3, 7-5 to set up a second-round clash with Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei, while eighth seed Timea Babos of Hungary beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-4, 6-1.
The match between second seed Sloane Stephens and Donna Vekic was suspended because of darkness at a set apiece.
Three Frenchwomen were among the winners — Caroline Garcia, wild-card Pauline Parmentier and lucky loser Virginie Razzano.
VERSICHERUNGSCUP
AP, NUREMBERG, Germany
Third seed Annika Beck of Germany overcame a rain delay to breeze past Teliana Pereira of Brazil 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the Nuernburg Versicherungscup on Monday.
Beck ended a run of three straight first-round defeats.
Seventh-seeded German Anna-Lena Friedsam also advanced, beating Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4. Eighth seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan was taken to three sets before overcoming qualifier Olga Fridman of Ukraine 6-7 (0/7), 6-2, 7-5.
Monday’s other winners were Varvara Lepchenko and Christina McHale of the US, Polona Hercog of Slovenia, qualifier Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia.
STILL IN THE HUNT: Rasmus Hojlund took his goal tally for SSC Napoli to nine as the champions cruised to a win at US Cremonese and stayed two points behind the leaders Inter on Sunday stayed at the Serie A summit after beating Atalanta BC 1-0 to maintain their slender lead over local rivals AC Milan. Lautaro Martinez netted the only goal of the game in Bergamo for Inter, who lead Milan, 3-0 winners against Hellas Verona thanks to Christoper Nkunku’s first Serie A goals, by a single point at the top of the division. The Argentina striker has scored in four consecutive league matches to end what has been a tricky year in positive style. “I ended last season in a lot of pain... I kept going during the Club World Cup and international
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