Defending champion Dominika Cibulkova survived a scare before advancing to the second round of the Kremlin Cup with a 2-6 6-4 6-2 win over Russian Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Slovakian struggled in the first set, losing four consecutive games as she appeared headed for an early exit from the joint ATP-WTA event.
But Cibulkova broke Makarova in the 10th game of the second set to level the match and soon jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set.
“The surface is very much different from the one here last year, and it’s not the best surface I would say,” Cibulkova said.
“Last year it was much softer and it was like a gum. But now it’s very slow and very rough. It was not easy to get into the rhythm, that’s why I had so many mishits in the first set.”
Cibulkova will face Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round after the Russian beat Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 6-0 7-6 (7-3).
Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan eliminated Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-2.
“With my tennis today, I had no chances against Yaroslava,” Pavlyuchenkova said.
“I made too many mistakes on my serve, while Yaroslava played aggressively and attacked from the first return.”
Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova bowed out with a 6-4 6-3 loss to France’s Alize Cornet, while Vesna Dolonc of Serbia made it into the final 16 as she rallied to eliminate Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 1-6 6-1 6-4.
In the first round of the men’s tournament, Alex Bogomolov Jr upset fellow Russian and three-time champion Nikolay Davydenko 7-5 6-4.
The two met two weeks ago in Beijing with Davydenko winning in straight sets in the first round.
“Today, I won the first set and and was leading 4-0 in the second, but Nikolay didn’t want to give up. I was lucky to win in straight sets,” Bogomolov said.
Davydenko saved two match points in the last game before sending a backhand cross just wide on the third.
“I’ve made too many mistakes in the match,” Davydenko said.
Seventh-seed Carlos Berlocq of Argentina beat Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov 1-6 6-4 6-3, Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia ousted Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan 6-4 6-3, and Dutchman Igor Sijsling defeated Germany’s Michael Berrer of Germany 7-6 (9-7) 6-3.
