Down a set, Pe’er rallies into second round in Rome

Pe’er gets back to winning ways after defeating Bojana Jovanovski 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 in first round of Italian Open in Rome.

By ALLON SINAI
Shahar Peer 311 (photo credit: Reuters)
Shahar Peer 311
(photo credit: Reuters)
Shahar Pe’er got back to winning ways on Tuesday, defeating Bojana Jovanovski 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the Italian Open in Rome.
After losing in three of her last four matches, including in the first round of the Madrid Open last week, Pe’er, ranked No. 14 in the world, dropped the first set against the 19-year-old Jovanovski (53), but stormed back in the second before wrapping up the win in two hours and four minutes.
Next up for Pe’er, who asked for her first-round encounter to be postponed until Tuesday so she would not have to play on Yom Hazikaron, is a rematch with Alisa Kleybanova (26), who beat the 24-year-old Israeli in the opening round in Madrid.
Meanwhile, after dropping eight more places to No. 147 in the world on Monday, Dudi Sela got the Busan Challenger tournament in South Korea off to a winning start on Tuesday, beating Mikhai Ledovskikh 6-4, 6-3.
Israel’s No. 2 Amir Weintraub (263) also advanced to the second round in Busan, defeating Mao-Xin Gong 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
Also in Rome, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone used her experience to defeat American upstart Christina McHale and reach the third round.
Schiavone, 12 years older than McHale who turns 19 on Wednesday, breezed through 6-3 6-1 in sweltering conditions in the Italian capital and said she was pleased with her form as Roland Garros approaches.
“Everything went according to plan today and it’s given me confidence,” said Schiavone, who suffered a third round loss to American Bethanie Mattek- Sands at the Madrid Open last week.
“It was nice and hot with the court playing very fast so your reactions have to be sharp.”
Reuters contributed to this report.