Tue Jun 10 14:34:28 2008

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Kirilenko rolls; Peer, Cibulkova bow out in Barcelona

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Barcelona, Spain (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko moved on, while top-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer and third-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova were a pair of first-round losers at the $145,000 clay-court Barcelona KIA tennis event.

Spanish crowd favorite Nuria Llagostera Vives drove out Peer in 7-5, 6-2 fashion, as the Spaniard won eight-of-10 games on Tuesday to advance. The match was knotted at 5-5 in the opening set on Monday when play was called due to darkness at La Taixonera.

Kirilenko was spanking Lilia Osterloh 6-0, 2-0 when the American retired, while Cibulkova was sent packing by France's Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-5, as the Slovakian quit the bout. Kirilenko will meet French Open quarterfinalist Carla Suarez Navarro in the second round.

Fourth-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova subdued Spanish qualifier Leticia Costas 6-2, 6-1, while sixth-seeded Italian Sara Errani erased Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-3, 6-2 and Russian qualifier Ekaterina Ivanova upended eighth-seeded Italian Tathiana Garbin 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Additional Day-2 wins came for Spaniards Arantxa Parra Santonja, a wild card this week, and the aforementioned Suarez Navarro, Russian qualifier Maria Kondratieva, and Romanian Edina Gallovits, who beat Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko 6-2, 0-6, 6-3. Gallovits was last year's Barcelona runner-up to American Meghann Shaughnessy.

The 2008 Barcelona champion will collect $22,900.