Nurnberg, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Seeded Italians Roberta Vinci and Karin Knapp were first-round winners Sunday at the Nurnberg Cup tennis event, a final clay-court French Open tune-up.
The fourth-seeded Vinci defeated Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia 6-1, 6-1 and the sixth-seeded Knapp beat German Antonia Lottner 6-2, 7-5 at Tennis-Club 1.FC Nurnberg.
Also Sunday, the seventh-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan defeated Polona Hercog of Slovenia 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, Evgeniya Rodina of Russia rallied to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and Zhang Shuai of China defeated Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-1, 7-5.
Canadian Genie Bouchard topped Czech Karolina Pliskova in last year's final.
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