Antwerp, Belgium (SportsNetwork.com) – Third seed Andrea Petkovic staved off
match points before going on to win her second-round match Wednesday at the
Diamond Games tennis event.
The German star snuck past Belgian wild card Alison Van Uytvanck 6-7 (7-9),
7-6 (7-5), 6-2 in her opener this week on the indoor hardcourts at
Sportpaleis Merksem. The former top-10 star “Petko” received a bye into the
second round.
In some first-round action involving seeds, No. 5 Spaniard Carla Suarez
Navarro came back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, No. 6 former
Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia whipped
Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-2 and No. 8 rising Czech Karolina
Pliskova handled Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
The other opening-round results saw France’s Kristina Mladenovic top Spaniard
Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-2, 1-0, retired, Romanian Monica Niculescu dispatch
Belgian favorite Kirsten Flipkens 6-3, 6-2 and Dutch qualifier Indy De Vroome
overcome Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
On Thursday, top-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Genie Bouchard will open her week
against German Mona Barthel.
Six other seeds will see second-round action on Day 3, including No. 2
Angelique Kerber and the aforementioned Cibulkova.
The 2015 Antwerp champion will claim $113,000.
