Grapevine, TX – Germany's Angelique Kerber withdrew from the $220,000 Texas Open, a final U.S. Open tune-up.
The top-seeded Kerber, who was Sunday's Cincinnati runner-up to China's Li Na, was due to play Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic. Kerber, though, pulled out of the event due to a left shoulder injury in order to focus on the final major tournament of the year.
Lucic made short work of Great Britain's Emily Webley-Smith, 6-1, 6-2, winning the match in 46 minutes.
Second-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic, a former world No. 1, rallied to beat Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 on the hardcourts at Hilton Lakes Tennis & Sports Club.
Two other seeded players to advance were No. 3 Roberta Vinci and No. 6 Peng Shuai. The Italian Vinci topped Chinese Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh, 6-2, 6-2; and the Chinese Peng upended Japan's Ayumi Morita, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Other players advancing on Monday were French qualifier Pauline Parmentier, New Zealand's Marina Erakovic, Canadian qualifier Eugenie Bouchard and Australian qualifier Casey Dellacqua.
The 2012 Texas Open champ will earn $37,000.
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