Peer beats Czink to reach Thai second round

BANGKOK, Oct 9 (Reuters) Third seed Shahar Peer of Israel booked her place in the second round of the Bangkok Open with a 7-6 6-4 win over Hungarian Melinda Czink today.

Peer took one hour, 39 minutes to get past Czink and set up a second round match with Russian Anastasia Rodionova, who beat qualifier Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-4 6-3.

Sixth seed Aiko Nakamura of Japan stumbled at the first hurdle, losing 6-4 7-6 to unseeded Czech Klara Zakopalova.

Seventh seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy beat Thai wildcard Noppawan Lertcheewakarn to go through 6-0 6-2.

Fourth seed Virginie Razzano of France, in the hunt for her third straight WTA title after wins in Guangzhou and Japan in the last few weeks, faces Lourdes Dominiguez Lino of Spain later today.

Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, currently occupying eighth place in the WTA race, is chasing more points to take one of the four remaining spots at the 3 million dollar season-ending championships in Madrid.

She will take on Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki on Wednesday and top-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic faces China's Yan Zi.

REUTERS SSC VC1910