Second seed Govortsova knocked out of Tashkent Open

Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Sep 30 (UNI) Qualifier Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan stunned second seed Olga Govortsova of Belarus in the first round of the Tashkent Open WTA tour event, being played at the Olympic Tennis School Tennis Courts here today.

Palkina created the biggest upset of the day as she knocked out Govortsova 7-6(9-7), 4-6, 7-5 in a two-hour 36 minute-long battle.

The other major upset came from Polish youngster Urszula Radwanska, who outpointed seventh seeded and home favorite Akgul Amanmuradova 7-6(7-5), 6-3 to move into the second round.

Top seed Shuai Peng of China, third seeded Sorana Cirstea and sixth seeded Monica Niculescu both of Romania, also made it to the second round of the event in contrasting styles, while eighth seeded Galina Voskoboeva of Russia pulled out citing health reasons.

Peng defeated Arina Rodionova of Russia 6-4, 6-1, while Sorana Cirstea scraped past Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus 7-6(7-4), 7-5.

In the best match of the day, last year's quarterfinalist Ksenia Palkina gave a tremendous display of tennis to account for second seeded Olga Govortsova 7-6(9-7), 4-6, 7-5.

Palkina played percentage tennis after being 1-3 down in the decider set and fought back with superb hitting from both sides to take the third set 7-5 and wrap the match.

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