Sorana Cirstea of Romania defeated wild-card entry Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 7-5, 7-6 (9) in the first round on Tuesday at the Sony Ericsson Open to earn a second-round match with Venus Williams.
The 40th-ranked Cirstea has never played Venus or her top-ranked sister Serena Williams, who have 19 Grand Slam singles titles between them.
Taiwanese players enjoyed mixed fortunes in the final qualifying round on Tuesday. In the men’s singles, Lu Yen-hsun defeated world No. 111 Jesse Levine of the US 6-4, 6-1 to set up a first-round clash against Italy’s Fabio Fognini. Lu beat Julio Silva of Brazil 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of qualifying on Monday.
In the women’s singles, British No. 1 Elena Baltacha made the first round thanks to a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) win over Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan.
Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic beat Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-4, 6-4 to set up a second-round match against reigning US Open champion and third-seeded Kim Clijsters.
Other first-round winners included Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, Gisela Dulko of Argentina, Peng Shuai of China and Alicia Molik of Australia.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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