Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (SportsNetwork.com) - Sixth seed Kurumi Nara won her first-round match, while seventh seed Bojana Jovanovski came up a loser Monday at the Malaysian Open tennis event.
The Japanese Nara snuck past Swiss Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), while little-known Russian qualifier Elizaveta Kulichkova upended the Serbian Jovanovski 6-3, 6-3 on the indoor hardcourts at Bukit Resort.
Additional Day 1 wins came for Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva, Polish qualifier Magda Linette, Thai Luksika Kumkhum, Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova, and Chinese Duan Ying-Ying.
On Tuesday, top-seeded former world No. 1 and last year's U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki will meet Chinese qualifier Wang Yafan.
Also slated for opening-round play on Day 2 are second-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Sabine Lisicki, third-seeded Aussie Casey Dellacqua and fourth- seeded Aussie Jarmila Gajdosova.
Croat Donna Vekic, who is not defending her title this week, upset Slovak Dominika Cibulkova in last year's Kuala Lumpur finale.
This week's champion will collect $43,000.
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