Hobart, Australia (SportsNetwork.com) - Former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur was a hard-fought opening-round winner Monday at the Hobart International tennis event, a final hardcourt Australian Open tune-up.
The top-seeded Aussie crowd favorite outlasted American qualifier Madison Brengle 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) in 2 hours, 29 minutes at Hobart International Tennis Centre.
Up next for Stosur will be France' Kristina Mladenovic.
In other action involving seeds, No. 2 Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium blitzed New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-1; American Alison Riske ousted No. 4 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-3, 6-2; No. 7 Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic handled Austrian Yvonne Meusburger 7-5, 6-2; and No. 8 Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia took care of German Annika Beck 7-5, 6-3.
Several other women advanced on Monday, including Romanian Monica Niculescu, Aussie wild card Casey Dellacqua, and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, the 2012 Hobart runner-up.
Reigning Hobart champ Elena Vesnina was tied with Puerto Rican Monica Puig 1-1 in the first set when their match was suspended because of rain. The Russian Vesnina beat German and 2012 titlist Mona Barthel in last year's finale.
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