INDIAN WELLS (California), March 14: American wildcard Vania King came from a set down to beat Anne Kremer of Luxembourg in the Pacific Life Open first round on Thursday.

The 19-year-old, who clinched her first WTA title at the 2006 Bangkok Open in her debut season, sealed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory after a two-and-a-half-hour battle.

Seeded players received a first round bye in the opening Masters Series event of the year being held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

King, who next meets 31st seed Tathiana Garbin of Italy in the second round, was sidelined for three weeks last month with a viral illness.

In other women’s matches on Thursday, Germany’s Angelique Kerber swept past Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-1, 6-2 and Romania’s Ioana Raluca Olaru beat Yuan Meng of China 6-4, 6-4.

The top women’s players enter the fray on Friday when Australian Open champion and fifth seed Maria Sharapova takes on French qualifier Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova faces fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova.

In the men’s event, Swede Robin Soederling crushed Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-3 in a first-round match on Thursday and Tour veteran Jonas Bjorkman, also of Sweden, edged past Italian Filippo Volandri 6-3, 7-6.

Russian Dmitry Tursunov defeated Benjamin Becker of Germany 7-6, 6-3 and Belgian Xavier Malisse came from a set down to beat French qualifier Florent Serra 6-7, 6-2, 6-0.

World No 1 and top seed Roger Federer, who was upset in the second round last year by Argentina’s Guillermo Canas, plays his first match on Saturday against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or Argentina’s Sergio Roitman.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who won the 2007 title with a victory over Serb Novak Djokovic, has been seeded second with Djokovic third and Russian Nikolay Davydenko fourth.

Thursday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

First round: Robin Haase (Netherlands) bt Dusan Vemic (Serbia) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Donald Young (US) bt Bobby Reynolds (US) 6-3, 6-4;

Fabio Fognini (Italy) bt Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3; Wayne Odesnik (US) bt Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Robby Ginepri (US) bt Vince Spadea (US) 6-1, 6-1; Marc Gicquel (France) bt Potito Starace (Italy) 6-4, 6-3; Olivier Rochus (Belgium) bt Arnaud Clement (France) 6-4, 6-4; Dmitry Tursunov(Russia) bt Benjamin Becker (Germany) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; Xavier Malisse (Belgium) bt Florent Serra (France) 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-0; Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Jesse Levine (US) 7-5, 4-6, 6-4; Santiago Giraldo (Colombia) bt Werner Eschauer (Austria) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Paul Capdeville (Chile) 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2; Dudi Sela (Israel) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3; Lee Hyung-taik (South Korea) bt Michael Llodra (France) 6-2, 6-3; Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) bt Filippo Volandri (Italy) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Robin Soderling (Sweden) bt Sebastien Grosjean (France) 6-3, 6-3.

Women’s singles:

First round: Evgeniya Rodina (Russia) bt

Anastasia Pivovarova (Russia) 6-4, 6-3 ; Greta Arn (Hungary) bt Sabine Lisicki (Germany) 6-3, 0-6, 6-4; Gisela Dulko (Argentina) bt Julie Ditty (US) 0-6, 6-3, 6-3; Galina Voskoboeva (Russia) bt Pauline Parmentier (France) 7-5, 6-3; Chan Yung-Jan (Taiwan) bt Iveta Benesova (Czech Republic) 2-6 6-2 6-4; Alla Kudryavtseva (Russia) bt Bethanie Mattek (US) 6-2, 6-1; Casey Dell’Acqua (Australia) bt Olga Poutchkova (Russia) 6-1, 6-1; Melanie Oudin (US) bt Maret Ani (Estonia) 7-5, 6-2; Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt Martina Mueller (Germany) 6-3, 6-2; Vania King (US) bt Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Ahsha Rolle (US) bt Madison Brengle (US) 6-2, 6-2; Elena Vesnina (Russia) bt Hsieh Su-Wei (Taiwan) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; Angelique Kerber (Germany) bt Ekaterina Bychkova (Russia) 6-1, 6-2; Raluca Olaru (Romania) bt Yuan Meng (China) 6-4, 6-4; Aravane Rezai (France) bt Camille Pin (France) 7-5, 6-2; Julia Schruff (Germany) bt Catalina Castano (Colombia) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.—Reuters