Petrova progresses in Seoul

Top seed Nadia Petrova moved into the second round of the Korea Open with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Jarmila Groth of Australia in Seoul.

There was a something of a fixture backlog today after Tuesday’s programme was washed out.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic crashed out, as the Serbian seventh seed was beaten 6-2 4-6 2-6 by Russian Vera Dushevina.

However, the other leading seeds wasted little time in securing their progress.

Number two seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, from Russia, rattled off a straight-sets victory over Australian Anastasia Rodionova, while another Russian Maria Kirilenko, ranked third, defeated Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-3 6-1.

Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, the number four seed, beat Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei 7-6 (7/3) 6-4.

Dinara Safina – the Russian ranked world number one in 2009 but given a wild card in Seoul as she battles a back injury which kept her out of Wimbledon - secured a 6-4 6-4 win over qualifier Simona Halep to also progress to the last 16.

Eighth seed Agnes Szavay, from Hungary, beat Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in straight sets to secure a second-round clash against British number one Elena Baltacha.