BAD GASTEIN, Austria - Two players who have been struggling for much of this year recorded three set wins in first round action at the Nürnberger Gastein Ladies.

After having her best-ever result on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour here last year, a runner-up showing, Ioana Raluca Olaru ascended to a career-high ranking of No.53, however, it has been a fairly steady decline since then to her current position of No.121. It looked like another loss was imminent for a while Monday, but the Romanian eventually outlasted Kathrin Woerle, 16 64 63.

"I was a little bit out of the picture. I was thinking about last year and I wanted to do just as well," said Olaru, who has not gone beyond the round of 16 at any event in 2010. "I think I also lost a bit of my concentration before the match because the match before took so long, and I had to warm up like 20 times. But I was playing well and tried not to think about it too much."

The match that Olaru was waiting on was the almost three-hour duel between Mariya Koryttseva and Tatjana Malek, in which the Ukrainian snapped a six-match losing streak (including ITF Women's Circuit events) that dated back to early May. In her 67(2) 76(3) 62 victory, Koryttseva blew a 5-3 first set lead but rallied back from deficits of 4-0 and 5-2 in a second set in which she survived eight match points. Also advancing were Alizé Cornet and Simona Halep.

In the final round of qualifying, Ekaterina Dzehalevich, Laura Pous Tio, Lesya Tsurenko and Lenka Tvaroskova won to secure main draw berths.

No.1 seed and defending champion Andrea Petkovic is among those in first round action Tuesday.