SEOUL, South Korea - Jarmila Groth won her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title in Guangzhou on the weekend but her block against Top 20 players continued in Seoul, as she lost to the No.19-ranked Nadia Petrova handily in straight sets in the first round of the $220,000 Hansol Korea Open.
Groth, who jumped from No.55 to No.41 on this week's rankings, had been 0-16 against Top 20 players going into the match, winning sets in only three of those encounters; seeded No.1, Petrova was broken in the opening game of the match but soon made the aforementioned stat 0-17 with a comprehensive 63 62 win.
Former No.1s Ana Ivanovic and Dinara Safina were both in action too, but only one of them made the cut. Safina, a wildcard, won the last three games of the first set and four of the last five games of the second set to beat qualifier Simona Halep, 64 64; Ivanovic, seeded No.7, was seemingly headed for a straight set win over Vera Dushevina, leading 62 44, when the Russian caught fire and won eight of the next 10 games to send the Serb packing, 26 64 62.
No.8 seed Agnes Szavay, Klara Zakopalova, Vania King and Kirsten Flipkens also scored first round wins on Day 3 of main draw play.
