Cornet battles in Antwerp

Antwerp - Seventh-seeded Alize Cornet has avoided an early upset at the Diamond Games as she rallied to beat Belinda Bencic 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the first round on Tuesday.

Cornet won just nine points in the first set as she struggled to switch from clay to hard court after helping France reach the Fed Cup semifinals in a 3-2 victory over Italy last weekend.

After taking a 3-1 lead in the deciding set, she failed twice to hold serve in a tense finale before closing out the match on her serve.

Cornet said "in the beginning of the match, I was completely lost on the court, but I used the weapons I had and in the end it was enough."

Francesca Schiavone, Alison Van Uytvanck and Annika Beck also progressed Tuesday.

Results from WTA Diamond Games tournament in Antwerp, Belgium on Tuesday (x denotes seeding):

First round

Alize Cornet (FRA x7) bt Belinda Bencic (SUI) 1-6, 6-2, 7-5

Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) bt Magdalna Rybrikov (SVK) 6-2, 6-3

Annika Beck (GER) bt Karin Knapp (ITA) 6-3, 6-1

Francesca Schiavone (ITA) bt Klara Koukalova (CZE) 6-3, 6-1