No. 7 seed Irina-Camelia Begu needed just 69 minutes to win in her native Romania on Monday, beating Nao Hibino of Japan 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Unicredit Iasi Open.
Begu won 21 of her 30 first-service points (70 percent) while Hibino struggled on her serve, winning just 42.9 percent of her total service points (18 of 42).
French fifth seed Varvara Gracheva beat Romania’s Ana Bogdan 7-5, 6-2; sixth seed Jil Teichmann of Switzerland outlasted another Romanian, Miriam Bulgaru, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1; and No. 3 Ann Li rallied past Spaniard Guiomar Maristany Zuleta de Reales 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Other winners Monday included Maja Chwalinska of Poland and Croatia’s Jana Fett.
MSC Hamburg Ladies Open
In a marathon match that took three hours and 21 minutes, Diane Parry of France outlasted Tara Wuerth of Serbia for a 7-6 (9), 3-6, 7-5 win in the first round in Hamburg.
Parry rallied from down 5-3 in the third set and saved double match point in the 10th game to keep herself alive. Wuerth had six aces to Parry’s three, including five in the last set, and the Croatian saved 11 of 14 break points in defeat.
Wild card entrant Nastasja Schunk of Germany saved nine of 13 break points she faced on her way to upsetting No. 6 seed Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 7-5, 6-3. After extending her match to a third set, No. 8 seed Mayar Sherif retired, granting a walkover to Louisa Chirico 4-6, 7-5, 3-0.
