Roberta Vinci started the defense of her St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy title with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over Timea Babos Tuesday. The sixth-seeded Italian was broken five times but still advanced to face either German veteran Andrea Petkovic or Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in the second round. Also Tuesday, Kristina Mladenovic of France beat Belgian qualifier Elise Mertens 7-6 (5), 6-4 and will next face Australian Open finalist Venus Williams. Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan also advanced, leading 6-1, 1-0 when Swedish opponent Johanna Larsson retired from the match. Putintseva will next face Annika Beck of Germany. On Monday, Germany's Annika Beck produced the first upset of the tournament ousting seventh seeded Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. It was Beck's first win over Bertens in their seventh meeting with the upset coming after the Dutch player had looked to be cruising early at the Sibur Arena. The 25-year-old Bertens raced to a 5-3 lead and was serving for the opening set only for her 22-year-old rival to move a gear, reeling off four games for a one-set advantage after 50 minutes. Bertens rallied in the second but floundered in the third, hitting 67 unforced errors throughout the match, with Beck coming through in two hours 19 minutes. The German next plays either Kazakh Yulia Putintseva or Sweden's Johanna Larsson for a place in the quarterfinals. Earlier Australia's Daria Gavrilova beat Russian wildcard Anna Kalinskaya 6-4, 7-5, after another Russian wildcard Natalia Vikhlyantseva cruised past Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4. Moscow-born Gavrilova will next play third-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in a replay of the last year's Kremlin Cup final. Czech banned A Czech player was banned from the St Petersburg tournament for abusing the umpire in her native tongue after a fellow Czech serving as a line umpire had informed against her, Czech media said Monday. World No. 166 Tereza Martincova and 85th-ranked Elise Mertens of Belgium were tied after two sets in the second round of qualifying Sunday, but Martincova grew increasingly upset with the umpire. "The referee corrected the line umpires against me throughout the rubber," the 22-year-old Martincova told the tenisovysvet.cz online tennis magazine. "When she did that for the third time in the second set, I yelled at her asking if she was taking the p*ss, but no warning came," she added. Martincova then squandered a 4-1 lead in set three to go 5-5 before a line umpire called a ball out and the umpire corrected him. This led the 22-year-old Martincova to look at Michaella Krajicek, a Dutch player with Czech roots, who supported her throughout the match. "She didn't understand the verdict either and I asked her if I should punch the ref in the face" in Czech, said Martincova. The umpire did not understand, but a Czech line umpire did - and she ran over to the referee to tell. The tournament supervisor then decided to end the rubber with the final score being 6-4, 4-6, 5-5. Martincova said she regretted the incident.
