PATTAYA CITY, Thailand - Top seed Vera Zvonareva made her first appearance at the PTT Pattaya Open on Tuesday, leading three seeds through to the second round. But the up-and-coming brigade was less successful, with both of the wildcards in action and all four qualifiers making their exits.
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Playing her first match since a tough loss to Victoria Azarenka at the Australian Open, defending champion Zvonareva scored a routine win over fellow Russian Ksenia Pervak, 63 62. Fourth seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and eighth seed Julia Goerges of Germany also won in straight sets, over Ayumi Morita and Greek qualifier Anna Gerasimou, respectively.
Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn breezed past Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva, winning 61 62 to set up a meeting on Wednesday with No.2 seed Sabine Lisicki. But Tanasugarn's younger compatriots stumbled, despite valiant efforts.
Wildcard Varatchaya Wongteanchai extended Chinese Taipei's Chang Kai-Chen - who boasts a win over Dinara Safina - to three sets, 46 63 63. Suchanan Viratprasert, also a wildcard, gave Sesil Karatantcheva a second set workout before going down, 61 75. Qualifier Nudnida Luangnam pushed Russian Ekaterina Bychkova to a third set tie-break.
Other winners included Chan Yung-Jan, who beat Chinese qualifier Zhou Yi-Miao in straight sets, and Italy's Alberta Brianti, who needed three to stop another qualifier, New Zealand's Sascha Jones.
Wednesday's drawcards include Asian stars Sania Mirza, who is the No.6 seed and Kimiko Date Krumm, seeded seventh.
