Defeats Anna Lapushchenkova of Russia 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of the Prague Open.
By ALLON SINAI, APpeer 224 88(photo credit: )
Shahar Pe'er put her Fed Cup disaster behind her on Wednesday, defeating Anna Lapushchenkova of Russia 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of the Prague Open.
Pe'er (18 in the world), who lost both her singles matches to inferior opponents in the Fed Cup over the weekend, will face Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova (68) in the second round of the Tier IV event.
Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich continued to struggle on clay on Wednesday, crashing out of the 888,000 euro Barcelona tournament, losing in the second round 7-6 (5), 6-1 to David Nalbandian and Lucas Arnold Ker.
On Tuesday, Dudi Sela (57) lost 6-3, 6-4 to Fernando Gonzalez in the first round of the BMW Open in Munich.
Meanwhile, two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin beat Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the second round of the BMW Open.
Safin, whose ATP ranking has dropped to 84th, got a wild card for the clay-court tournament. His match was delayed from Tuesday because of rain.
Also Wednesday, top-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu cruised into the third round by beating qualifier Gianluca Naso 6-3, 6-4.
Eight-seeded Marin Cilic and Lee Hyung-taik also reached the third round. Cilic beat Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 7-6 (7) and Lee downed qualifier Julio Silva 6-1, 6-4. But sixth-seeded Andreas Seppi lost to Simone Bolleli 6-4, 7-5.
After Tuesday's withdrawal of Philipp Kohlschreiber, the tournament lost another local attraction when Tommy Haas pulled out.
Haas, who was seeded fifth, said his right shoulder was still painful, despite three operations. Haas said he would also skip the upcoming tournaments in Hamburg and Rome.
In first-round matches, seventh-seeded Steve Darcis beat Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-4, Michael Berrer ousted Ivo Klec - who replaced Haas in the main draw - 6-1, 7-6 (6) and Younes El Aynaoui defeated Alexandre Sidorenko 6-4, 7-6 (6).
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