Sports04/10/2007Azarenka advances at Tashkent Open, Cibulkova is eliminated
Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus defeated Hsien Su-wei of Taiwan 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday to advance to the second round of the Tashkent Open.
In a day of upsets, Pauline Parmentier of France ousted second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2 in the first round, while seventh-seeded Olga Poutchkova and eighth-seeded Anastasia Rodionova of Russia were both eliminated in second-round play.
Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus beat Rodionova 6-3, 6-0, while Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan defeated Poutchkova 6-3, 6-4.
"The Russians used to dominate here but now those times are over," said Amanmuradova, who was a runner-up here in 2005.
The fourth-seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia advanced to the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus.
Vesnina will next play fifth-seeded Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania, who beat Ukraine’s Mariya Koryttseva 6-2, 6-2.