Dulgheru, Dulko exit Monterrey Open

Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru was a surprise loser to Silvia Soler-Espinosa at the Monterrey Open in Mexico on Tuesday (local time).

Dulgheru, seeded fourth at the event, lost to her Spanish opponent 6-3 6-3 in just 87 minutes.

Dulgheru struggled on her serve, double-faulting on eight occasions and offering her opponent 12 break points, of which she converted six.

Soler-Espinosa's first serve percentage was just 47 percent but she did enough to win her way into the second round.

It was a tough day for the seeded players, with fifth seed Gisela Dulko going down 6-4 7-6 (7-2) to Austria's Patricia Mayr-Achleitner while Luxembourg's Mandy Minella defeated seventh seed Mathilde Johansson of France 6-1 5-7 7-6 (7-5).

Sixth seed Greta Arn of Hungary reversed the trend by beating China's Shuai Zhang 6-1 6-4.

Frenchwoman Alize Cornet also won, toppling American Tetiana Luzhanska 6-4 7-6 (7-3), while Russia's Valeria Savinykh easily accounted for Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-2 6-3.

Croatian qualifier Maria Abramovic defeated Russian Alexandra Panova 7-5 6-4 and Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino won past Puerto Rico's Monica Puig 6-3 6-3.

Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova toppled compatriot Sessil Karatantcheva 6-1 4-6 6-3, while Hungary's Timea Babos defeated Mexican Ximena Hermoso 6-2 6-3.