Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Sports Network) - This week's top-three seeds,
including Roberta Vinci and former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, and another
former top-ranked star, Venus Williams, posted first-round wins Tuesday at the
Luxembourg Open tennis event.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams whipped Swiss wild card Belinda
Bencic 6-3, 6-1. The American popped five aces in the 68-minute affair.
Williams will face ninth-seeded German Mona Barthel on Thursday.
The top-seeded Vinci, of Italy, held off Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-0, 2-6,
6-0, while the third-seeded Serbian Jankovic was leading Peng Shuai 3-0 in the
first set when the Chinese retired due to a right shoulder injury on Day 2 at
CK Sportcenter Kockelscheuer.
Vinci titled here in 2010.
Second-seeded Julia Goerges moved on with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Spaniard
Silvia Soler-Espinosa. Goerges was last week's runner-up to current
world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in Linz, Austria and lost to Vinci in the
Luxembourg finale two years ago.
Up next for Goerges will be Romanian Monica Niculescu, who was last year's
Luxembourg runner-up to Azarenka.
In other action involving seeds, Belgian wild card Kirsten Flipkens upended
No. 5 German Sabine Lisicki 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 and No. 6 Romanian Sorana Cirstea
subdued Croat Petra Martic 6-2, 6-2. Lisicki was a Luxembourg runner-up in
2009.
Additional opening-round wins came for Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino and
German qualifier Annika Beck.
The 2012 winner of this $220,000 tournament will earn $37,000.
The Sports Network