The top two seeds easily advanced, but fourth-seeded Nuria Parrizas Diaz had to retire in the third set as opening round action continued in the first round of the Unicredit Iasi Open on Tuesday in Romania.
Top-seeded Elina Avanesyan of Armenia defeated Romanian Andreea Prisacariu, 6-3, 6-3 while No. 2 Jaqueline Cristian of Romania overwhelmed Daria Lodikova, 6-1, 6-4. In a battle of Spanish players, Parrizas Diaz and Irene Burillo split the opening two sets, both at 7-5. But 2 hours, 43 minutes into the match, Parrizas Dias retired, trailing 4-1 in the deciding set.
In a battle of veteran Romanian players, Sorana Cirstea defeated Mihaela Buzarnescu, 6-2, 6-2. Other winners were No. 8 Francesca Jones of Great Britain, Hungary’s Panna Udvardy, the Czech Republic’s Anna Siskova, Argentina’s Maria Lourdes Carle, Andorra’s Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva and Switzerland’s Simona Waltert.
MSC Hamburg Ladies Open
Fifth-seeded Lois Boisson, the upstart Roland Garros semifinalist, cruised past Austria’s Julia Grabher, 6-1, 6-3 as opening round play continued in Hamburg.
The Frenchwoman broke Grabhner’s serve on five occasions, winning nearly 45 percent of the points played on her opponent’s first serves. The only other seeded player to compete was No. 7 Anna Bondar and the Hungarian survived a three-hour marathon to prevail over German Noma Noha Akugue, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3).
Two other matches went the distance. Austria’s Sinja Kraus edged Turkey’s Berfu Cengiz, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, while Australian Astra Sharma nipped Spanish teen Ariana Geerlings, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2.
–Field Level Media
