PARIS, Feb 6: Holder Nadia Petrova of Russia made an early exit from the Paris Open when Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko beat her 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round on Tuesday.

Petrova, seeded fifth at the indoor event, had her chances and opened up a 4-2 lead in the third set but showed signs of nerves at crucial moments.

Bondarenko hit a forehand wide on the first match point but on the second Petrova netted a forehand to bow out after two hours and 25 minutes.

Petrova put her defeat down to the in-form Bondarenko, who is ranked 43 in the world and recently won the women’s doubles title with her sister Alona at the Australian Open, due to a lack of confidence which has seen her fail to win a tournament since landing the crown here last year.

Two-times champion Amelie Mauresmo delighted the home crowd by outplaying American qualifier Julie Ditty 6-1, 6-2 in just 56 minutes in the day’s last match.

Former world No 1 Mauresmo, who lost in the third round of last month’s Australian Open, decided not to play Fed Cup in order to concentrate on her preparations for the Paris tournament.

Without her, France lost to China in a quarter-final tie in Beijing at the weekend.

“I can take a lot of positives out of this victory,” said Mauresmo, who has two Grand Slam titles to her name both coming in 2006 at the Aussie Open and Wimbledon.

“It’s a good start, albeit against a girl who lacks energy in her game but as I have been having a hard time of it lately that I will take any sort of win.”

The Frenchwoman, who won the title in 2001 and 2006, will face Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou in the second round.

“She (Daniilidou) is a more aggressive player than Ditty,” said Mauresmo.

“I am very wary of her. It will be a hard match to play,” added Mauresmo, who has given her coach Loic Courteau a week off.

Hungary Agnes Szavay, seeded seventh, also advanced comfortably, crushing Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-1, 6-1.

The top four seeds have a first-round bye and enter the tournament from Wednesday.

Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

First round: 6-Amelie Mauresmo (France) bt Julie Ditty (US) 6-1, 6-2; Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine) bt 5-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4; Yuliana Fedak (Ukraine) bt Karin Knapp (Italy) 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 6-2; Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) bt Camille Pin (France) 7-5, 6-3; Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) bt Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 6-2, 6-3; 7-Agnes Szavay (Hungary) bt Olga Govortsova (Belarus) 6-1, 6-1; Tathiana Garbin (Italy) bt Meilen Tu (US) 6-3, 6-4.

PATTAYA OPEN