08 April,2009 01:04 PM IST | | Agencies
Top-seeded Nadia Petrova breezed through the first round at The MPS Group Championships at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida with a 6-2 6-4 win over Olga Govortsova.
Petrova won 76 percent of her first-serve points, and was only tested briefly when Govortsova broke and held in the second set to pull the game level at 4-4 from 4-2.
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark faced a sterner test from Samantha Stosur, but she eventually ran out a 6-3 6-7 (4/7) 6-1 winner.
However, fourth seed Patty Schnyder was unable to negotiate her way through the opening round as she was beaten convincingly by Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-0.
Sixth seed Shuai Peng of China also crashed out, losing to Elena Vesnina 2-6 6-1 6-3.
Elsewhere American Bethanie Mattek-Sands beat 13th-ranked Marion Bartoli of France 5-7 7-6 (7/4) 6-3, while Daniela Hantuchova fought off three match points to beat Anastasija Sevastova 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7/5) on a day when wind was affecting many of the matches.
Other winners included fifth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak, Anastasia Rodionova, Tamira Paszek, Virginie Razzano and Sabine Lisicki.
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