Montreal, Aug. 17: Kaia Kenepi of Estonia defeated 14th seed and World No. 18 Shahar Peer of Israel 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Rogers Cup held in Montreal.
Dinara Safina enjoyed a cakewalk as she downed Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in an easy match.
World No. 19 Aravane Rezai of France rallied to beat Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic 6-7 (1), 7-5, 6-3. She saved 12 of 18 breakpoint opportunities for Kvitova in the match and seven of 10 over the final two sets.
In another other match, Timea Bacsinszky registered a comfortable win over Aleksandra Wozniak 6-3, 6-2. While Australia’s Jarmila Groth overpowered Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 7-6 (9), 6-2, Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic got the better of Italy’s Sara Errani 6-3, 6-2. After going down in the first set, Vania King of USA came back strongly to defeat Spanish Anabel Medina Garrigues 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Also former world No. 7 Patty Schnyder, who lost in qualifying but made the main draw as a lucky loser, advanced with a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-3 win over Virginie Razzano. Meanwhile, it was curtains for Stephanie Dubious as the Canadian went down to Klara Zakopalova of Czech 6-4, 5-7, 3-6.
Sybille Bammer survived a scare losing her second set match against Alexandra Dulgheru. Sybille kept her nerves to trounce Alexandra 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
In another match, Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium had a tough encounter against Olga Govortsova of Bulgaria. After a first set win, she kept Olga on her toes finally winning the match 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).
US stars Serena and Venus Williams who are absent with injuries, give China’s Li Na a bye as a ninth seed.