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Hantuchova advances in Paris

Paris - Daniela Hantuchova will face top-seeded Maria Sharapova in the second round of the Open GDF Suez after beating Marina Erakovic on Tuesday.

Hantuchova was leading 6-3, 3-0 and looked headed for a straight-set victory when Erakovic retired with a lower back injury.

Sharapova leads Hantuchova 8-1 in their head-to-heads, with the Slovak's only win against the four-time Grand Slam champion coming when they first played 10 years ago.

Seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain is also through to the second round after winning 6-1, 6-4 against qualifier Johanna Larsson of Sweden and next plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.

In other first round matches, Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, Yvonne Meusburger of Austria, Karin Knapp of Italy and Germany's Andrea Petkovic all advanced.

Cornet laboured past Magdalena Rybarikova of Serbia 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 and Meusburger beat Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 7-5, 6-1.

Cornet closed out the first set on serve after breaking Rybarikova twice.

The Serb struggled on her serve in the second set but Cornet missed chances to break her midway through the set and then twice dropped her own serve. At 6-5, Rybarikova broke Cornet again to level the match. But Cornet then broke twice at the start of the third set to regain control.

Knapp advanced 6-4, 6-1 against Spain's Lara Arruabarrena and Petkovic won 6-2, 6-3 against Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, breaking her serve five times.

Knapp next faces third-seeded Sara Errani and Petkovic plays either No. 5 Simona Halep of Romania or Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic.

Results from the WTA tournament in Paris on Tuesday (x-denotes seeding):

First round:
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) bt Marina Erakovic (NZL) 6-3, 3-0 retired
Yvonne Meusburger (AUT) bt Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) 7-5, 6-1
Karin Knapp (ITA) bt Lara Arruabarrena (ESP) 6-4, 6-1
Andrea Petkovic (GER) bt Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 6-2, 6-3
Alize Cornet (FRA) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
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