Tue May 20 10:20:32 2008

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Petrova eases into second round in Istanbul

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Istanbul, Turkey (Sports Network) - Third-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova highlighted Tuesday's opening-round winners at the $200,000 Istanbul Cup tennis event, a final clay-court French Open tuneup.

Petrova pasted American Lilia Osterloh 6-1, 6-2 to setup a second-round match with Poland's Marta Domachowska.

Two other seeds advanced on Day 2 here, as No. 6 Uzbekistanian Akgul Amanmuradova handled German Martina Muller 6-4, 6-1 and No. 8 Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova topped Slovenian qualifier Polona Hercog 6-4, 7-5.

Additional first-round wins came for Romanians Liana Ungur and Sorana Cirstea and Czech qualifier Veronika Chvojkova. The qualifier Ungur's second-round opponent on Wednesday will be top-seeded and defending Istanbul champion Elena Dementieva of Russia. The two-time Grand Slam runner-up Dementieva beat France's Aravane Rezai in last year's finale here.

The 2008 Istanbul titlist will collect $30,500.