Tennis
Safarova advances in Moscow
2012-10-15 16:57
Moscow - Eighth-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic advanced to the second round of the Kremlin Cup on Monday by beating Russian wildcard entry Margarita Gasparyan 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Safarova won five consecutive games in the first set, and then broke twice in the third before serving out the match at love.
Earlier, Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden marked her Kremlin Cup debut with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia.
Samantha Stosur, the 2011 US Open Champion, is the top-seeded player in the women's draw, while Marion Bartoli of France is No 2.
Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine leads the men's field of the 23rd edition of the tournament, whil Italy's Andreas Seppi is seeded second.
Results from the first day of the Kremlin Cup on Monday (x denotes seeding):Men
First roundDenis Istomin (UZB x6) bt Bjorn Phau (GER) 5-7, 7-5, 6-1
Lukas Rosol (CZE) bt Daniel Gimeno (ESP) 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (7/2)
Malek Jaziri (TUN) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 6-3, 6-1
Tatsuma Ito (JPN x8) bt Roberto Bautista (ESP) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
Women
First roundKlara Zakopalova (CZE) bt Alexandra Cadantu (ROM) 6-3, 6-3
Lucie Safarova (CZE x8) bt Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) bt Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 6-2, 6-4
Urszula Radwanska (POL) bt Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 6-3, 6-1