Washington, DC – Top seed Angelique Kerber was an easy first-round victor Tuesday at the $235,000 Citi Open tennis event.
The German left-hander humbled American qualifier Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-3 on the hardcourts at FitzGerald Tennis Center.
Up next for Kerber will be another American, Melanie Oudin.
Third-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova eased past Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, 6-4, 6-2. Fourth-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet drubbed Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-1, 6-3, fifth-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea topped Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 7-5, 1-1, retired, and sixth-seeded German Mona Barthel leveled Swiss Stefanie Voegele 6-2, 6-2.
No. 8 seed American Madison Keys upended Portugal's Michelle Larcher de Brito, 7-5, 6-3.
Also on Day 2, Alison Riske downed fellow American Vania King, 6-3, 7-5, Brit Heather Watson overcame American qualifier Alexandra Mueller 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3, France's Caroline Garcia defeated Georgian Anna Tatishvili, 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, and Romanian Monica Niculescu whipped American wild card Taylor Townsend 6-3, 6-0.
The 2013 Citi Open champ will collect $40,000.