Radwanska advances at Tashkent Open
Urszula Radwanska of Poland and two other seeded players advanced to the second round of the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan on Monday..
The second-seeded Radwanska, the younger sister of No 2-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska, rallied from 5-1 down in the second set to defeat Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor of Spain 6-4, 7-5.
Third-seeded Alize Cornet of France swept aside Nina Bratchikova of Russia, winning 6-1, 6-3. Seventh-seeded Alexandra Panova of Russia beat Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Gajdosova saved three match points to level the third set at 5-5 before Panova took the final two games.
Spain's Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino defeated Slovakia's Jana Cepelova 6-1, 6-2 in little more than an hour. Sabina Sharipova downed Vlada Ekshibarova 6-4, 7-5 in a match between wild cards from Uzbekistan.
The 43rd-ranked Radwanska, who lost in the first round of the US Open, struggled with her serve at times - although the 112th-ranked Torro-Flor was even shakier and finished with eight double faults.
"I never played Torro-Flor and didn't know what to expect," Radwanska said. "She played some unbelievable tennis in the second set to go up 5-1 , but then I kept my patience and played my strokes to come back and take the match. I told myself she cannot be playing like this the whole match, and I need to put in more balls and make her make mistakes."
Top-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania is set to take on Karin Knapp of Italy on Tuesday while Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany plays sixth-seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia. Eighth-seeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan plays qualifier Vesna Dolonc of Serbia.
