Peng ousts former champ Zvonareva at Indian Wells
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 7, 2014
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Peng Shuai sets up second round with Eugenie Bouchard after beating Vera Zvonareva at Indian Wells. |
China's Peng Shuai booked her second-round berth at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Wednesday with a three-set win over former champion Vera Zvonareva.
Zvonareva, a former world No. 2 who was sidelined for all of 2013 with illness and a right-shoulder injury, had been seeking just her second win since the 2012 Olympics, but was unable to make her wildcard go far as she fell 6-4, 0-6, 5-7.
Peng, who last month attained the world No. 1 doubles ranking, broke Zvonareva five times in the final two sets to seal the victory in two hours and 21 minutes.
The 28-year-old next faces 18th-seeded Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.
All 32 men's and women's seeds at the US$12 million hardcourt tournament in the California desert enjoy first-round byes.
British qualifier Heather Watson lined up a second-round meeting with second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Swiss Belinda Bencic.
American Lauren Davis earned a meeting with third-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus- the 2012 champion- with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Chinese Taipei's Chan Yung-jan.
Nadia Petrova, another Russian former top-five player who received a wildcard into the draw as she tries to get her 2014 campaign on track, also fell at the first hurdle.
Petrova, who missed the Australian Open in the wake of her mother's death in December in an auto accident, retired with a right lower leg injury after splitting the first two games against Spain's Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
Soler will take on 22nd-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in the second round.
Austrian Yvonne Meusburger set up a second-round meeting with another former champion, seventh seed Jelena Jankovic, after defeating Iveta Melzer 6-4, 6-2.
Japan's Kurumi Nara, who won her first WTA title at Rio a fortnight ago, defeated US qualifier Allie Kiick 6-4, 6-0 to book a meeting with sixth seed Romanian Simona Halep.
Australian Open champion Li Na of China is the top seed in the women's draw, with defending champion Maria Sharapova, seeded fourth, drawn in the same half.
Men's first-round action was to begin yesterday, with unseeded players jockeying for position in a field headed by defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain.
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