Pavlyuchenkova battles into round two in Monterrey

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made an uncertain start to the defence of her Monterrey Open title after being pushed all the way in her first-round encounter with Eleni Daniilidou.

Pavlyuchenkova, the second seed at this hard-court event behind Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, looked in good touch in the first set but lost the second on a tie-breaker as her Greek opponent found her range.