Mon Jun 11 18:55:29 2007

Comment | Email | Print

Vakulenko, Kirilenko advance in Birmingham

---

Birmingham, England (Sports Network) - Ninth-seeded Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko and 16th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko posted Day-1 wins at the $200,000 DFS Classic.

Vakulenko vaulted past Chinese Tiantian Sun 6-2, 6-1, while Kirilenko cut down American Raquel Kops-Jones 6-3, 6-2 on the grass courts at Edgbaston Priory Club.

Twelfth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland pasted veteran Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 6-1, 6-3, 13th-seeded American Meilen Tu trounced Italian Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 and 15th-seeded Greek Eleni Daniilidou dropped American Laura Granville 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

A mild upset came when Ukrainian Yuliana Fedak topped 14th-seeded Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

American Lilia Osterloh got past Ukrainian Varvara Lepchenko 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, Russian Elena Likhovtseva leveled American Bethanie Mattek 6-3, 6-0 and Indian Sania Mirza mauled Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-3, 6-3.

Additional Monday wins came for Belarusian Olga Govortsova, Aussie Casey Dellacqua, American Ahsha Rolle, Slovenian Andreja Klepac, Russian Yaroslava Shvedova, France's Nathalie Dechy and Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

This week's top seeds are U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic. The Aussie Open runner-up and former world No. 1 Sharapova will meet Osterloh in the second round here, while the French Open semifinalist Jankovic will battle Pironkova. Sharapova, who also landed in the French Open semis last week, was the back-to-back Birmingham champion in 2004 and 2005.

Russian Vera Zvonareva defeated American Jamea Jackson in last year's DFS finale.

Birmingham serves as a tune-up for Wimbledon, which will commence in two weeks at the All England Club.