Baku Cup 2011: Top Seeds Zvonareva, Pavyulchenkova Through First Round

Day 2 and the first round of the hard-court tournament favored the seeds, but not with ease.

Top seed Vera Zvonareva surpassed the first round of the Baku Cup by beating Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan, 6-1, 7-5, on Tuesday.

Zvonareva remained unbroken in the first set and managed to win 100 percent of her first serves, but in the second set, the world No. 484 Abduraimova took two breaks of serve and pushed the world No. 3 while being able to combat five attempts of the Russian’s threat on her service game. 

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 2 seed, took a close victory from qualifier Valeria Solovieva, 7-5, 6-4, in two hours, 25 minutes.

Pavlyuchenkova struggled to keep her serve in. She hit 25 double faults and had difficulty with her slower second serve, winning only 16 of 57 second serves.

It appeared that she was suffering from heat sickness and had to receive treatment in the second set and pulled out the match by winning eight more total points to her opponent at 89 out of 170.

Following suit, No. 3 seed Elena Vesnina was pushed to three sets against fellow Russian Yana Buchina, ranked No. 373, but eventually won, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Buchina was able to convert five of five break-point opportunities but gave the favored player Vesnina 17 chances to take advantage of her serve and failed to defend seven of them. 

Ekaterina Makarova, the No. 4 seed, had an easier win against Anne Kremer, 6-1, 6-4. Seventh-seeded Ksenia Pervak almost lost the third set against Noppawan Lertcheewakarn being down 1-4, but came back to win, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.

The only top player to fall was eighth-seeded Evgeniya Rodina, who fell to Ana Tatishvili, 6-4, 6-2, while the fifth-seeded Monica Niculescu benefited from opponent Eirini Georgatou retiring at 5-1 after 51 minutes of playing.

Though she wasn’t seeded, France’s Aravane Rezai dominated World No. 9999 Kamilla Farhad with a first-set bagel, 6-0, 6-2, with the most aces of the day at eight in total. Lucky loser Tatia Mikadze made an impressive show with a double bagel over Nina Khrisanova.

The other winners included Kristina Kucova, Anna Tatishvili, Kateryna Bondarenko, Anastasia Yakimova and Elena Bovina.

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