Nurnberg, Germany – Third seed Alize Cornet and fourth seed Julia Goerges managed to fit in opening-round victories Tuesday at the rainy, inaugural clay-court Nurnberger Versicherungscup tennis event.
The recent Strasbourg, France champion Cornet held off fellow Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier 6-3, 6-4, while the heavy German crowd favorite Goerges grounded Romanian Alexandra Cadantu 6-4, 7-5 at Nurnberg Tennis Club.
After rain washed away all of Monday's scheduled action in Nurnberg, four matches were postponed on Tuesday because of inclement weather/darkness.
Top-seeded and former world No. 1 star Jelena Jankovic was leading Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus 6-4 on Day 2 when play was called.
In other opening-round action involving seeds, No. 5 Czech Lucie Safarova topped Kazakhstan's Sesil Karatantcheva 6-2, 7-6 (11-9), No. 6 Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino bested Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino 7-5, 6-3, and No. 8 German favorite Annika Beck doused Russian Nina Bratchikova 6-2, 6-2.
Several other women posted first-round wins, including wild card and former top-10 star Andrea Petkovic of Germany and American Julia Cohen. Petkovic got past Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-2.
The winner of this $235,000 tournament will claim $42,600.
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