Linz, Austria (My Sportsbook) - Top seed Flavia Pennetta highlighted Tuesday's opening-round winners at the Generali Ladies Linz tennis event. The world No. 11 Pennetta continued her recent fine play by leveling American Meghann Shaughnessy 6-1, 6-1 on the indoor hardcourts at Linz' Intersport Arena. Pennetta will face German Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the second round. Fifth-seeded Czech Iveta Benesova also reached the second round by handling German qualifier Stephanie Gehrlein 7-5, 6-0. An upset came when German qualifier Julia Goerges grounded sixth-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 6-3. Seventh-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova avoided an upset by blasting Austrian wild card Patricia Mayr 6-2, 6-1 and eighth-seeded Italian Sara Errani charged into the second round by waltzing past Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2, 6-3. Additional Day-2 wins came for Belarusian Olga Govortsova and Germans Groenefeld and Tatjana Malek. The first round will conclude here on Wednesday, including matches for second- seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and third-seeded rising Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. Radwanska was last week's Beijing runner-up to Russian star Svetlana Kuznetsova. Wickmayer was a surprise U.S. Open semifinalist last month. The winner of this $220,000 tournament will earn $37,000. |
