Peng shocks top seed Bartoli at Portugal Open
OEIRAS (Portugal), May 1: China’s Peng Shuai showed little sign of a recent shoulder injury at the ATP/WTA Portugal Open on Tuesday as she knocked out French top seed Marion Bartoli in the first round 6-0, 1-6, 6-4.
Peng, a 2010 semi-finalist in her only previous appearance at the event, won in an hour and three-quarters.
Elsewhere in the opening round, third seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Shahar Peer 6-4, 6-4 but German No 8 seed JuliaGoerges lost to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 7-6, 6-2.
In the men’s draw, France’s fifth seed Julien Benneteau like compatriot Bartoli failed to justify his seeding as he lost to Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-3, 6-4.
But Spain’s eighth seed Tommy Robredo secured a comeback win over compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.
In the men’s doubles, the top seed pairing of Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands defeated Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi and Andreas Seppi 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 in the first round.
Results (prefix number denotes seeding):Men’s singles:First round: Gastao Elias (Portugal) bt 7-Horacio Zeballos (Argentina) 6-3, 6-4; 8-Tommy Robredo (Spain) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spain) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; Robin Haase (Netherlands) bt Pablo Andujar (Spain) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; Paolo Lorenzi (Italy) bt Niels Desein (Belgium) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Victor Hanescu (Romania) bt Rui Machado (Portugal) 6-4, 6-4; Albert Ramos (Spain) bt Carlos Berlocq (Argentina) 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-3; Alejandro Falla (Colombia) bt Andrey Kuznetsov (Russia) 7-5, 6-4; Pablo Carreno (Spain) bt 5-Julien Benneteau (France) 6-3, 6-4.
Women’s singles:First round: Urszula Radwanska (Poland) bt 2-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) bt 8-Julia Goerges (Germany) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2; Francesca Schiavone (Italy) bt Lourdes Dominguez Lino (Spain) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; Estrella Cabeza Candela (Spain) bt Aravane Rezai (France) 5-7, 6-1, 6-3; Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt Kristina Mladenovic (France) 6-4, 6-3; 3-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) bt Shahar Peer (Israel) 6-4, 6-4; Romina Oprandi (Switzerland) bt Kiki Bertens (Netherlands) 6-3, 6-3; Peng Shuai (China) bt 1-Marion Bartoli (France) 6-0, 1-6, 6-4; Galina Voskoboeva (Kazakhstan) bt Sofia Arvidsson (Sweden) 6-3, 6-4; Monica Niculescu (Romania) bt Tamira Paszek (Austria) 6-1, 6-3.
SEEDED YOUZHNY OUSTEDMUNICH (Germany): Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic beat seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 onTuesday to advance to the second round of the Munich Open.
Youzhny was the second former winner of the clay-court event to be eliminated after two-time champion Nikolay Davydenko lost on Monday. Youzhny was the 2010 winner.
Results:First round: Gael Monfils (France) bt 8-Jurgen Melzer (Austria) 6-3, 6-3; Evgeny Korolev (Russia) bt Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 7-5, 7-6 (7-3); 6-Florian Mayer (Germany) bt Lukasz Kubot (Poland) 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 7-5; 5-Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukraine) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine) 6-4, 6-2; Viktor Troicki (Serbia) bt Matthias Bachinger (Germany) 6-3, 6-2; Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt 7-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; Grega Zemlja (Slovenia) bt John Millman (Australia) 6-2, 6-2; Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 6-4, 6-2.—Agencies