MOSCOW: Eighth-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic advanced to the second round of the Kremlin Cup yesterday by beating Russian wild-card entry Margarita Gasparyan 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Safarova won five consecutive games in the first set, and then broke twice in the third before serving out the match at love.
“I met her (Gasparyan) for the first time and I didn’t know whom I was playing against,” Safarova said. “She was serving very well while I was a little bit down in the second, allowing her to level. But I caught my tennis right away at the beginning of the third (set) to take the set and the match. I’m happy to win tonight.”
In the second round, Safarova will face fellow Czech Klara Zakopalova, who beat Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-3, 6-3.
In the men’s first round, sixth-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan rallied to beat German veteran Bjorn Phau 5-7, 7-5, 6-1. He will next face Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic, who ousted Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 7-6 (9), 7-6 (2).
The 43rd-ranked Istomin, who reached his second career final in San Jose in February, took a 5-0 lead in the third set and served out the match at love.
Eighth-seeded Tatsumo Ito of Japan beat Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
Earlier, Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden marked her Kremlin Cup debut with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia.
Samantha Stosur, the 2011 US Open Champion, is the top-seeded player in the women’s draw, while Marion Bartoli of France is No. 2.
Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine leads the men’s field of the 23rd edition of the tournament. Andreas Seppi is seeded second.
Safarova reaches 2nd round at Kremlin Cup
