Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (SportsNetwork.com) – Sixth seed Kurumi Nara won her
first-round match, while seventh seed Bojana Jovanovski came up a loser Monday
at the Malaysian Open tennis event.
The Japanese Nara snuck past Swiss Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), while
little-known Russian qualifier Elizaveta Kulichkova upended the Serbian
Jovanovski 6-3, 6-3 on the indoor hardcourts at Bukit Resort.
Additional Day 1 wins came for Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, Polish qualifier
Magda Linette, Thai Luksika Kumkhum, Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova, and Chinese
Duan Ying-Ying.
On Tuesday, top-seeded former world No. 1 and last year’s U.S. Open runner-up
Caroline Wozniacki will meet Chinese qualifier Wang Yafan.
Also slated for opening-round play on Day 2 are second-seeded former Wimbledon
runner-up Sabine Lisicki, third-seeded Aussie Casey Dellacqua and fourth-
seeded Aussie Jarmila Gajdosova.
Croat Donna Vekic, who is not defending her title this week, upset Slovak
Dominika Cibulkova in last year’s Kuala Lumpur finale.
This week’s champion will collect $43,000.
