Pervak out of Baku Tournament after she retires

On the second day of play at the WTA’s Baku Cup tournament in Azerbaijan, three seeds lost in their first round matches, while three others won their matches.

Last year’s Baku Cup runner up, the Russian Ksenia Pervak, had to retire in her match against Julia Cohen of the United States when Cohen led 6-4 3-6 3-2. The tournament’s number seven seed, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, lost to Olga Puchkova of Russia, 6-3 7-6, with the tight tie break going the distance and ending at 12-10. The match lasted just short of two hours. Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic, the number eight seed, was steamrollered by Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1 6-1 in just one hour on court.

On a positive note, the seeds who are through to the second round are the second seed Aleksandra Panova of Russia, who saw off the Australian qualifier, Sasha Jones 7-5 7-6, with the tie break set going to 7-5. This was a nail biting encounter which lasted two and a quarter hours fifth seed Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, who overcame Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in a see saw match which ended with the scoreboard reading 6-3 2-6 6-3; and Nina Bratchikova, seeded 6, who had a much easier time against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria 6-2 6-4.

Tags Akgul Amanmuradova Alexandra PAnova Baku Cup julia cohen Ksenia Pervak nina bratchikova Patricia Mayr-Achleitner