MEXICO — Ana Ivanovic made a comfortable start to her Monterrey Open title defense Tuesday, on what was a good day for the seeds in Mexico. The Serbian top seed overcame Czech qualifier Nicole Vaidisova 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) at the WTA International event. Ivanovic broke serve six times during the 72 minutes on court as she was tested by the former world No. 7. Vaidisova retired in 2010 before making her comeback late last year, with this performance her best since returning. It was a busy day at the event after Monday was rained out. Italian second seed Sara Errani was on court for just over an hour, thrashing American Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-3. Caroline Garcia, the third seed, was pushed before claiming a 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Italian Karin Knapp. Timea Bacsinszky overcame 10 double faults to edge Yanina Wickmayer 7-6 (10-8), 3-6, 6-4. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova overcame a slow start to get past Anna Schmiedlova 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Qualifier Urszula Radwanska was a 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (7-3) winner against Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor and Lesia Tsurenko crushed Shelby Rogers 6-2, 6-0 in 51 minutes. The final match of the day, which finished in the early hours of Wednesday, saw Daniela Hantuchova beat Monica Puig 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 7-5. Nara beats Linette In Malaysia, sixth-seeded Kurumi Nara reached the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open by beating Polish qualifier Magda Linette 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (6) Wednesday. The Japanese player was up a break at 5-3 in the second set when Linette won four straight games to force a deciding set. Also, unseeded Elizaveta Kulichkova of Russia, who had knocked out seventh-seeded Bojana Jovanovski in the first round, defeated Kazakh player Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-2. Fourth-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia and eighth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany also advanced. — Agencies
