SEOUL, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- No. 1-seed Nadia Petrova and defending champion Kimiko Date Krumm were straight-set winners Wednesday at the Korea Open tennis tournament in Seoul.
Players completed first-round play Wednesday, a day later than scheduled after rains caused the cancellation of all play Tuesday.
Date Krumm, who won the Korea Open final last year one day before her 39th birthday, opened her title defense with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Junri Namigata. She won more points (33-29) off Namigata's serve than Namigata did.
Petrova defeated Jarmila Groth, who was coming off a win at a tournament in China last week, 6-3, 6-2 in 63 minutes. Petrova lost her serve only once in the match.
Seventh-seeded Ana Ivanovic fell to Vera Dushevina 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 but all of the other seeded players Wednesday also won in straight sets, starting with No. 2-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beating Anastasia Rodionova 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.
Third-seeded Maria Kirilenko stopped Urszula Radwanska 6-3, 6-1; No. 4-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez beat Hsieh Su-Wei 7-6 (7-3), 6-4; sixth-seeded Yaroslava Shvedova got by Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-5, 7-5; and No. 8-seeded Agnes Szavay routed Polona Hercog 6-1, 6-2.
Other first-round winners Wednesday were Vania King, Kirsten Flipkens, Dinara Safina, and Klara Zakopalova.
UPI
