The first round matches of the key Wimbledon warm-up went into play on Monday on grass of Eastbourne. Former Wimbledon quarterfinalist Nadia Petrova won her opener and moved onto the second round, while No. 5 seed Victoria Arazenka and No. 6 seed Alize Cornet went crashing out.
Alize Cornet was the first of three seeds to go out on the grass, and had arguably the toughest match for the entire seeded contingent, facing Amelie Mauresmo, one of the strongest grass court players of the last decade. Mauresmo has had dry results of late, not getting past the quarterfinals since this very tournament a year ago, when she made it all the way to the final before finishing runner-up to Justine Henin; but her experience on this surface far outweighs her young compatriot's and it showed, as she defied her recent form in notching a 61 46 75 upset win.
Mauresmo, a former world No.1 player, has been to the semifinals or better at Wimbledon four times, including winning the title in 2006 (one of her two career Grand Slam titles, alongside her Australian Open triumph earlier that season); Cornet was contesting just her second grass court event on the Tour, having reached the second round of Wimbledon last year as a lucky loser.
No. 8 seed Nadia Petrova showed better playing than Cornet, cruising to the second round with a victory over Shahar Peer 62 62.
Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova and Russians Alisa Kleybanova, Ekaterina Makarova and Alla Kudryavtseva all earned main draw berths with wins in the final round of qualifying.
No comments:
Post a Comment