Stephens, Wozniacki win New Haven openers
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American crowd favorite Sloane Stephens and four-time tournament champion Caroline Wozniacki were among the first-round winners Monday at the New Haven Open, a final U.S. Open tune-up.
The sixth-seeded Stephens got past Slovakian qualifier Anna Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-4 on the hardcourts at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University.
Wozniacki, who titled here four straight years from 2008-11, had a tougher time in her opening match with Peng Shuai. The fourth-seeded former U.S. Open finalist dropped the first set but was leading the second when Peng retired due to dizziness to give Wozniacki the 2-6, 3-1 victory.
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That match was delayed more than two hours by rain, with the extended stoppage forcing defending tournament champion Petra Kvitova's first-round bout to be postponed until Tuesday. The third-seeded Czech, who downed Russian Maria Kirilenko in last year's New Haven finale, will take on Urszula Radwanska.
Day-2 upsets came when nifty Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro took out fifth- seeded Italian Roberta Vinci 7-5, 6-3 and Czech veteran Klara Zakopalova doused eighth-seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Surging Romanian Simona Halep continued her recent winning ways with a 6-2, 6-1 pasting of wild card and fading Slovak Daniela Hantuchova. Halep has captured no less than three WTA titles over the last couple of months.
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Also advancing were Russians Elena Vesnina, Ekaterina Makarova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as well as a trio of qualifiers -- American Alison Riske, Puerto Rico's Monica Puig and Italian Karin Knapp.
Vesnina was the 2009 New Haven runner-up to Wozniacki.
Former French Open runner-up Sara Errani is the top seed this week and will face Makarova in the round of 16.
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This week's winner will earn $117,000.