Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (SportsNetwork.com) - Top seed Klara Zakopalova reached the second round, while former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone came up a loser Tuesday at the inaugural Rio Open tennis event.
The veteran Czech Zakopalova got past Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino 6-4, 6-4, while the second-seeded Italian Schiavone succumbed to Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-4, 6-4 on the red clay at Jockey Club Brasileiro.
Another upset came when German Dinah Pfizenmaier upended seventh-seeded Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Brazilian Teliana Pereira knocked off fourth-seeded Romanian Alexandra Cadantu 6-3, 6-4.
Also in the opening round, South African Chanelle Scheepers overcame Hungarian Timea Babos 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; Irina-Camelia Begu bettered her countrywoman by taking down eighth-seeded American Vania King 6-4, 6-0; Paraguayan qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg took down Paula Cristina Goncalves 7-5, 7-6 (10-8).
In the final first-round match, Austrian Patricia Mayr-Achleitner subdued Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 6-3.
On tap in Wednesday's first-round tilts is fifth-seed Kurumi Nara taking on Su-Wei Hsieh and Nadiya Kichenok squaring off against Anna-Lena Fredsam.
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