Pennetta Makes Strong Start; Cornet Rallies Back

The last batch of first round matches and the first second round matches took the courts of the Generali Ladies Linz on Wednesday, with no huge surprises at the $600,000, Tier II tournament.
 
The only seed left to play their first round match, Flavia Pennetta, had the quickest win of the day, crushing Agnes Szavay in just 54 minutes, 61 62. Pennetta, who just reached a new career-high ranking of No.14 this week, is the No.7 seed and will take on Dominika Cibulkova in the second round.
 
Also moving into the second round were Sybille Bammer, a 75 63 winner against Francesca Schiavone, and qualifier Petra Kvitova, who beat Austrian wildcard Tamira Paszek, 63 63.
 
In the only second round matches of the day, No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska cruised past Kaia Kanepi, 62 64, while No.8 seed Alizé Cornet won a see-saw night match against Maria Kirilenko, 16 62 61. Cornet had fallen in the first round of her last three tournaments - at Stuttgart, Moscow and Zürich - but has now won back-to-back matches to reach her first quarterfinal since August.
 
This year's four best doubles teams were also in action. Cara Black and Liezel Huber, seeded No.1 this week and playing their first round match, moved past Renata Voracova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in a match tie-break victory, 61 46 107. Also contesting the first round, No.3 seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs won through in straight sets, while No.4 seeds the Bondarenko sisters were ousted by Jill Craybas and Tamarine Tanasugarn. No.2 seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Ai Sugiyama played their quarterfinal, taking out Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez handily, 62 63.

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