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Safarova serves up a treat

Safarova serves up a treat

07/06/2010 08:19:53 PM

Lucie Safarova produced a serving performance boyfriend Tomas Berdych would have been proud of to breeze past Kathrin Woerle in the first round of the Swedish Open on Tuesday.

Perhaps taking inspiration from Berdych's heroics in reaching the Wimbledon final last week, the Czech player won 22 of 25 points on first serve and saved both break points she faced.

German qualifier Woerle simply had no answer against the third seed as she slipped to a 6-2 6-0 defeat.

Top seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy was also in irresistible form as she beat local wildcard Anna Brazhnikova, ranked 493rd in the world, by the same scoreline.

Another Swedish wild card, 16-year-old Ellen Allgurin, who does not even have a ranking, managed little better, losing 6-1 6-3 to fourth seed Gisela Dulko.

And to complete a miserable day for the host nation, seventh seed Sofia Arvidsson crashed out courtesy of a 6-2 6-4 defeat by Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

Sixth seed Angelique Kerber also fell as she was forced to retire in the third set of her match against Croatian qualifier Ana Vrljic, but there were no such problems for eighth seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, a 6-3 6-0 winner over Slovakia's Zuzana Kucova.

Elsewhere there were wins for two Americans - Jill Craybas and wildcard Sloane Stephens - as well as Holland's Arantxa Rus and Spanish qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives.

Meanwhile, Top seed Alisa Kleybanova booked her place in the second round of the GDF Suez Grand Prix in Budapest with a hard-fought win over Kazakhstan's Sesil Karatantcheva.

The Russian prevailed 7-5 6-4, on a day when all the seeds involved avoided defeat.

Romanian No.2 seed Alexandra Dulgheru beat Czech opponent Sandra Zahlavova 6-2 6-3, and Swiss third seed Timea Bacsinszky overcame Hungarian Timea Babos 6-4 6-2.

Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, seeded fourth, was pushed to three sets but in the end had too much for Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru, winning 3-6 6-4 6-0, while there were straight-sets wins for fellow seeds Roberta Vinci, Agnes Szavay and Polona Hercog.

Among the unseeded players to come through their opening matches were Switzerland's former top-10 player Patty Schnyder and French wild-card entry Alize Cornet.

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

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