Petkovic, Stosur, Kuznetsova out of Wuhan Open 1st round

Wuhan: Andrea Petkovic, seeded 13th, became the first seed to bow out of Wuhan Open first round on Sunday as the German lost to Britain`s qualifier Johanna Konta 6-3, 7-5.

Konta`s best result so far comes from this year`s US Open, where she reached the fourth round, reported Xinhua.

Twice Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova and former US Open champion Samantha Stosur failed to get through the opening round either. Russia`s Kuznetsova, the winner of 2009 French Open and 2004 US Open, lost the lop-sided match 6-0, 6-1 to her compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Stosur of Australia offered no better match in a 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Croatia`s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

12th-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine beat wild card player Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4. Twice Australia Open winner Victoria Azarenka of Belarus held off America`s qualifier Lauren Davis 6-2, 7-6 (4).

Two wild card holders from China suffered early exit, leaving no player from the host country remaining. Zhang Saisai, the 2015 quarterfinalist in Pan Pacific Open and Guangzhou Open, lost to America`s Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 6-0. Romania`s Monica Niculescu eased past the other Chinese Liu Fangzhou 6-1, 6-1.

German qualifier Julia Goerges dismantled France`s Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-3. Other players advancing into the second round include Daria Gavrilova of Germany, Coco Vandeweghe of America and Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic.