China's Peng Shuai (
Peng was joined in the last 16 by Slovenian seventh seed Katarina Srebotnik, the only ranked player in action on the opening day, who recorded a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russia's Olga Poutchkova.
The 21-year-old Peng played corner-to-corner against the taller Bovina, frequently wrong-footing her opponent into errors with an intelligent and aggressive game honed by her new coach, former world No. 2 Michael Chang (張德培).
PHOTO: AFP
"It's just a good way to start," Peng told reporters. "She hits hard, so I tried to hit hard first. She is a big girl, so I tried to move the ball around."
At world No. 62, Peng is China's second-ranked player and is making a comeback after suffering a serious ankle injury in early May.
"I'm feeling much better," she said. "I'm trying to learn what my real game is and Michael is helping me with that. He was a real fighter and I would like to be like that, too."
PHOTO: AFP
Srebotnik was upset in the first round of two previous tournaments in which she was seeded eighth or higher. The 25th-ranked Srebotnik reached the third round of all three Grand Slam events this year. Poutchkova lost her fifth straight.
Eleni Daniilidou of Greece outlasted Amber Liu of the US 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in a later match that lasted more than two hours.
"Amber was getting a little tired and I was way more aggressive than her beginning in the second set," the 41st-ranked Daniilidou said. "I really couldn't see in the first set; there were shadows on the court."
Daniilidou plays top-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the second round tomorrow.
In other matches, Meilen Tu of the US beat Meghann Shaughnessy, 7-6 (3), 6-1 to reach the second round for the 11th time in 13 tournaments, and Lilia Osterloh beat fellow US player Jill Craybas 6-2, 7-5.
Osterloh advances to meet second-seeded Marion Bartoli, while Peng meets third-seeded Daniela Hantuchova.
Davydenko makes early exit
Gilles Simon of France held on to upset world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in their Croatia Open first-round match on Monday.
Simon led 5-0 in the final set, but Davydenko saved four match points to rally to 5-3. The Russian had eight break points in the next game, but Simon held serve for the best win of his career.
It was Davydenko's third defeat in a row in the first round in as many weeks.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia scored his 100th victory by beating qualifier Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-1, 6-3 in his first match on clay since the French Open semi-finals.
In the second round, Djokovic -- who retired with a finger blister in the semi-finals at Wimbledon -- will meet either Viktor Troicki of Serbia or Predrag Rusevski of Macedonia.
Also moving to the second round were Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, defeating countryman Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4; Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat Mathieu Montcourt of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-1; Pere Riba of Spain, defeating Luka Belic of Croatia 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain, who defeated Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-0, 6-4.
Querrey snaps losing streak
Struggling US player Sam Querrey snapped a seven-match losing streak here on Monday on the opening day of the US$525,000 ATP Indianapolis Championships.
The 91st-ranked Californian thrashed 60th-ranked Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 in just under 90 minutes for his first victory on clay since April 29.
Querrey was desperate to turn his luck after losing to top-10 stars Tommy Haas and James Blake during his sad spring but crashed out against qualifiers in the first round of the French Open and Wimbledon.
Russian teen Evgueni Korolev put out the US' Justin Gimelstob 6-2, 6-4.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
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