The top two seeds made their debut at the Gastein Ladies. One succeeded, but one failed to go through to the next round. Agnes Szavay, the top seed advanced to the second round, and that means that No. 2 seed Alize Cornet couldn't make it.
Szavay lost in the first round of last week's Budapest, but that didn't repeat here in Austria, as she easily defeated lucky loser Viktoriya Kutuzova in straight sets, 64 62. Szavay is just one win away from reaching her fourth clay court quarterfinal of the season, having gone that far at Amelia Island, Charleston and Berlin. She next faces wildcard Melanie Klaffner for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The second seeded Cornet, who won in Budapest last week, was defeated by illness today, and retired from her debut match after winning the first set 6-2, losing the second 2-6, and losing her serve early in the third set to Rossana de los Rios. It will be Rios who will paly in the next round, against Austrian wildcard Patricia Mayr.
Caroline Wozniacki, the second highest ranked player left (after Szavay), easily demolished her first opponent of the tournament, Hsieh Su-Wei, in just 43 minutes, 61 61. For Wozniacki, it has been a breakthrough year, but all of her best results are on other surfaces. In win-loss, she was just 6-4 on clay before heading into Bad Gastein, her best results are finishing in the third round in Rome and in Roland Garros. She will face Mariya Koryttseva, a finalist at Palermo last week, in the second round.
Other players winning first round matches on Wednesday were No.5 seed Timea Bacsinszky, Karolina Sprem, Yvonne Meusburger, qualifiers Lucie Hradecka and Tereza Hladikova and wildcard Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Sprem took out No.8 seed Vera Dushevina, 63 64, the only seeded upset other than Cornet's retirement.
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