One seed succeeds; the other flies home

As the first day of Nordea Nordic Light Open went into play, No. 7 seed Kateryna Bondarenko went flying home, but No. 2 seed Agnes Szavay had the opposite result, cruising into the second round, along with Finnish wildcard Emma Laine, who also won her debut match.

The first match with a seed included was the match between Agnes Szavay and Yanina Wickmayer. Despite winning in straight sets, it wasn't an easy win for the Hungarian, as she was fighting hard in the first set, and survived a tiebreak in the second to win the match.

No. 7 seed Kateryna Bondarenko didn't fight hard enough to beat her French opponent Camille Pin, as she went down in flames in straight sets, 64 76(3). Even though the Ukrainian won in Birmingham this year, she was no match for Pin, who is ranked 77th. After the shameful loss, Bondarenko is now 0-3 against Pin. She will next face German Julia Georges or her opponent Johanna Larsson in the second round.

Wildcard Emma Laine also cruised through to the second round after beating Russian Alexandra Panova easily, 63 61. Ranked No. 365, and being over 100 places higher than her first round opponent, this was a good start for Laine, and for the Scandinavian world of tennis.

Czech Iveta Benesova played against another Ukrainian, Tatiana Perebiynis, and won easily 62 62. that was the second time that the two players faced eachother, the first time being in 2004, here in Stockholm, when Perebiynis won.

The qualifying event also wrapped up, with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Angelique Kerber and Maria Elena Camerin gaining main draw berths.