Key Biscayne, FL – Rising 33rd-ranked American Christina McHale and once-promising American Melanie Oudin each suffered first-round losses Monday at the $740,000 Family Circle Cup tennis event.
Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak took out the 11th-seeded M cHale 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, while 10th-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues grounded the 20-year-old Oudin 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 on the green clay at Family Circle Tennis Center. The Montreal native Wozniak outlasted the 19-year-old McHale in 2 hours, 48 minutes.
The Georgia native Oudin is best known for her Cinderella run into the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2009.
Meanwhile, 14th-seeded Slovenian Polona Hercog humbled 41-year-old Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-4, 6-3, Argentine qualifier Paula Ormaechea upended 15th-seeded South African Chanelle Scheepers 6-1, 1-6, 6-4, and Swiss Stefanie Voegele ousted 16th-seeded Aussie Jarmila Gajdosova 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Jamie Hampton outwilled Sloane Stephens 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) in an All-American bout, but another American loss came when Czech Andrea Hlavackova doused Irina Falconi 6-1, 7-5.
Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva moved past former top-10 performer Jelena Dokic as the Aussie veteran retired with a right wrist injury in the first set while trailing 4-3.
Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who is not defending her title here this week, beat Russian Elena Vesnina in last year's Family Circle final. Vesnina advanced Monday with a hard-fought 7-6 (12-10), 7-5 victory over Canadian Stephanie Dubois.
Additional Day-1 wins came for Russian Vera Dushevina, Aussie Anastasia Rodionova, Greek Eleni Daniilidou, Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, Croat Mirjana Lucic, and Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
The top seed here, Agnieszka Radwanska, pulled out of the event on Sunday after beating former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova in Saturday's title match in Miami. The top seeds now are second-seeded U.S. Open champ Samantha Stosur and former Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli. Stosur was the Charleston champ two years ago.
Bartoli will open up against Dushevina.
The field of 56 here also includes a fifth-seeded Serena Williams and an unseeded Venus Williams. Serena titled here in 2008 and was the runner-up in 2003, while her fellow former world No. 1 big sister was the 2004 champ.
Serena will face the 2011 runner-up Vesnina in the round of 32.
This week's titlist will claim $115,000.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.