Radwanska clears first hurdle in Korea Open

SEOUL: Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland advanced to the second round of the Korea Open by beating Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-4, 6-0 Tuesday.
Second-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia, eighth-seeded Annika Beck of Germany and unseeded Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan also advanced, but two other seeded players lost early.
Fourth-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic lost to 18-year-old wild-card entrant Su Jeong Jang of South Korea 6-3, 6-1, and seventh-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany lost to Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.

Cirstea crashes out of Guangzhou, Robson through
In Guangzhou, China, top-seeded Sorana Cirstea crashed out of the Guangzhou Open in the first round Tuesday, but British number one Laura Robson powered through as she looks to repeat last year’s final appearance.
Robson defeated Cirstea in the semifinals 12 months ago, but the Romanian failed to overcome her first hurdle this year when she was well beaten by Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 6-1.
Robson, seeded third this time, eased through to the second round with victory over Serbian Jovana Jaksic 6-2, 6-4 in her opening game.
Robson will next play home hope Zheng Saisai, who won a gruelling 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 7-5 tie against Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum which lasted two hours 50 minutes.
Also through to the next round were the second seed Alize Cornet of France, who outclassed Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 6-1, and the Chinese pair of Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai.
In Tuesday’s other first-round matches, Austrian Yvonne Meusburger beat Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 6-4, and Serbian Vesna Dolonc overcame Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 7-5, 6-2 in a hard-fought game which lasted almost one hour 50 minutes.
Current champion Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan sailed through her first-round match on Monday.

Fognini advances at St. Petersburg Open
In St. Petersburg, Russia, top-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy reached the second round of the St. Petersburg Open by beating British qualifier Dominic Inglot 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday.
Fognini, the runner-up last year, broke Inglot early in each set and saved the only break point he faced late in the second set.
The 17th-ranked Italian is looking for his third career title. He won his first two back to back in June.
Fourth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov prevailed in the tiebreakers to eliminate Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3).
The 34th-ranked Russian was serving for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 in the second set but Baghdatis broke him twice to force a tiebreaker.
At 6-1 down on a tiebreaker, the Cypriot saved two match points before Tursunov sealed the victory with a backhand shot into the left corner of the court.
“I played rather simple but then started to create some knotty combinations and lost my service game,” Tursunov said. “I then lost the initiative and he cheered up. I was lucky to outrun him on a tiebreaker.”
Earlier, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who is also looking for his third career title, defeated Russian qualifier Mikhail Biryukov 6-4, 6-1.
Eighth-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan eliminated Samuel Groth 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, breaking decisively on his first match point when the Australian qualifier returned his forehand long.