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Seeds Through
Date: 4 January 2010
Favourite Flavia Pennetta and wild card Yanina Wickmayer breezed through their opening round singles matches as the ASB Classic got off to a rain-delayed start on Monday.
Wickmayer, seeded third and ranked 16th in the world, was first to progress with a 6-3 7-5 result over German Julia Goerges once play began an hour late. Her only real hiccup came when she lost service at 5-4 in the second set, but the Belgian recovered to break straight back eventually prevail in the tiebreak.
The outcome came as a relief to Wickmayer after the recent brush with drug testing auhorities that threatened to curtail her involvement on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year.
"I was really happy to play again," she admitted. "
It has been a tough time for me, so it was nice to be on the court again to compete."It was a pretty tough match. I knew her from before and knew I had to be very aggressive, otherwise she was going to do it."
"I was the most aggressive on the important points and, physically, a bit better today."
Next, Wickmayer will face the winner of the opening-round KIA Motors Singles encounter between Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru and qualifier Elena Baltacha of Britain.
Pennetta, who previously visited Auckland in 2003 when she failed to qualify for the main draw, returned this time with all eyes on her and responded with a regulation 6-2 6-4 win over veteran American Jill Craybas.
The Italian also dropped her service during the second set and expressed some feelings of rustiness in her first outing of 2010.
"I was really nervous in the beginning," said Pennetta. "It is tough to start the year with everyone expecting so many things.
"I’m really happy because I didn’t play my best tennis, but I was able to get through this match. Maybe the next day I will play much better ... I hope so."
Pennetta will now meet either Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro or Austrian qualifier Edina Gallovits in the next round on Wednesday.
