Medina Garrigues Wins; Perfect Day for Seeds

The seeds were a perfect 4-0 as the first round continued Tuesday at the Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem. The seeds winning through included top seed and heavy favorite Anabel Medina Garrigues, who rallied from a set down to beat Lourdes Domínguez Lino.
 
Medina Garrigues, at No.34 ranked 15 places higher than any other player in this week's draw, started slowly against Domínguez Lino, dropping the first four games, and although she won four of the next five games still dropped the first set, 6-4. That momentum continued in the next two sets, as Medina Garrigues outrallied her compatriot for a 46 62 61 win.
 
Medina Garrigues is playing her third event of the year on clay, after a third round finish at Amelia Island and a first round loss at Charleston. Those events were on green clay, however - given six of her seven career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles have been won on red clay, this is clearly her best surface.
 
The Spaniard's fellow seeded players, Tathiana Garbin, Timea Bacsinszky and Alisa Kleybanova, also won first round matches. No.3 seed Garbin trailed 64 31 to Catalina Castaño but fought back to win in three, 46 63 63; No.5 seed Bacsinszky downed wildcard Nadia Lalami, 62 64; and No.6 seed Kleybanova ousted last year's runner-up, Aleksandra Wozniak, 62 63.
 
Winners of matches between unseeded players were Emilie Loit, Rossana de los Ríos, Petra Cetkovska, Greta Arn, and qualifiers Arina Rodionova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Arn had the most noteworthy victory of the day, stopping the run of former Top 5 player Jelena Dokic, who made it into a Tour main draw for the second time this year with some solid play in the qualifying tournament, but ultimately fell at the first main draw hurdle.
 
Three seeds were in first round doubles action but only one moved on, as No.3 seeds Kleybanova and Ekaterina Makarova won their match against the British pairing of Elena Baltacha and Amanda Elliott. No.2 seeds Gisela Dulko and Betina Jozami and No.4 seeds Marina Erakovic and Alina Jidkova were ousted.

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