Petrova fights back to advance

Eighth seed Nadia Petrova overcame a poor showing in the first set to book her place in the second round of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven.

The Russian lost the opening set 6-1 to America’s Varvara Lepchenko as her opponent took two of her four break-point chances.

But Petrova hit back in fine style to take the remaining two sets 7-5 6-1.

Fourth seed Elena Dementieva claimed a comfortable 6-1 6-2 win over Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, while Daniela Hantuchova was a 7-5 6-3 victor against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and Kateryna Bondarenko defeated Petra Kvitova by the same scoreline.

Dominika Cibulkova was made to battle for her second-round berth by American Melanie Oudin.

The Slovakian took the opener 6-2 but Oudin levelled the match by taking the second set 7-5.

Cibulkova eventually triumphed as she won the final set 6-4 to complete a match lasting just over three hours.

Italy’s Sara Errani was a comfortable 6-1 6-2 winner against China’s Jie Zheng and qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands saw off the challenge of Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru 6-2 6-1.

In the men’s draw Radek Stepanek beat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-0 6-4, but France’s Arnaud Clement was dumped out by Russia’s Igor Andreev 7-6 (7/2) 6-3.

Benjamin Becker saw off Marco Chiudinelli 7-6 (7/3) 6-3, while qualifiers Mikhail Kukushkin and Teymuraz Gabashvili beat Simon Greul and Potito Starace respectively.

Andreas Seppi lost out 6-3 6-4 to Jarkko Nieminen but Jan Hajek is through after recording a 7-5 6-3 success over Dustin Brown.

American wild card Donald Young completed his rain-delayed 6-1 6-2 win over Stephane Robert while compatriot James Blake blitzed Pere Riba 6-1 6-0 and Germany’s Daniel Brands beat Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 6-4 2-6 7-5.

Taylor Dent was another American to progress, securing a 7-6 (7/1) 4-6 6-0 win over Eduardo Schwank.

There were also wins for Peter Luczak, Maximo Gonzalez, Evgeny Korolev and Lukas Lacko.