Tennis
Top seed Bartoli advances
2011-05-17 19:21
Strasbourg - Top-seeded players Marion Bartoli and Andrea Petkovic reached the second round of the Strasbourg International with straight-sets wins on Tuesday.
Bartoli, seeded No 1, overcame problems with her serve to beat Kimiko Date-Krum 6-2, 6-1 after breaking the Japanese veteran six times.
The Frenchwoman next plays Elena Baltacha of Britain, who was leading 6-3 when Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia retired.
The second-seeded Petkovic made light work of Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-1 in an all-German match.
Eighth-seeded Lucie Hradecka beat American qualifier Ahsha Rolle 6-3, 6-4. The Czech, runner-up to Aravane Rezai two years ago, served 10 aces and broke Rolle three times.
She will next play Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France, who defeated Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 6-1.
China's Zhang Shuai beat Pauline Parmentier of France 6-2, 6-4, Mirjana Lucic of Croatia beat Christina McHale of the United States, 7-5, 7-6 (7) and France's Alize Cornet prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 over Sania Mirza of India.