Zakopalova Escapes Upset on Day 1 in Bogotá

The only seed in action Monday at the Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas - Klara Zakopalova - won in a nail-biter.

Published Feburary 16, 2009 12:00

Zakopalova Escapes Upset on Day 1 in Bogotá
Klara Zakopalova

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - Although the skies opened up in the afternoon, several matches were completed at the Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas on Monday, with the only seed in action - Klara Zakopalova - making it through her first round match in a nail-biter.

Zakopalova, seeded fifth, was up against Romina Oprandi, an Italian who has spent time in the Top 50 before but has finished the last two seasons ranked outside of the Top 200. She seemed to be in her form of old, however, taking the first set handily and staying ahead for most of the second set, even holding two match points - one at 6-5 in the set and another at 6-5 in the tie-break. She even served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but Zakopalova hung tough every time, securing the two-hour, 42-minute win in a third set tie-break, 36 76(7) 76(5).

The other two matches saw Romania's Edina Gallovits steamrolling past Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 62 62, and Petra Cetkovska winning an all-Czech battle with Sandra Zahlavova, 75 62.

Johanna Larsson, Tzipora Obziler, Katalin Marosi and Tamaryn Hendler all secured main draw berths with wins in the final round of qualifying.

The first doubles match of the week also took the court, as second seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta beat Patricia Mayr and Masa Zec Peskiric, 62 63.

A slew of matches were pushed to Tuesday due to the rain that began falling hard around 2:30pm, making Day 2's schedule even more packed than it already would have been. The other seven seeds in the draw - No.1 seed Pennetta, No.2 seed Carla Suárez Navarro, No.3 seed Dulko, No.4 seed and defending champion Nuria Llagostera Vives, No.6 seed Mathilde Johansson, No.7 seed María José Martínez Sánchez and No.8 seed Lourdes Domínguez Lino - all play first rounds.

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