Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Seeded women Tamira Paszek and Carla Suarez Navarro were a pair of upset victims Monday at the Luxembourg Open tennis event.
Czech Lucie Hradecka doused the seventh-seeded Austrian Paszek 6-3, 7-6 (10-8), while Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova upended the No. 8 seed Suarez Navarro of Spain 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Ninth-seeded German Mona Barthel avoided an upset by besting Luxembourg's own Mandy Minella, a wild card this week, 7-5, 6-0 on Day 1.
One other first-round match saw Romanian Monica Niculescu dismiss Swiss Romina Oprandi 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. Niculescu was last year's Luxembourg runner-up to Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka.
On Tuesday, top seeds Roberta Vinci, Julia Goerges and former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic will all take to the courts for opening-round affairs, as will another former top-ranked star, Venus Williams, who will meet Swiss wild card Belinda Bencic. Goerges was last week's runner-up to the current world No. 1 Azarenka in Linz, Austria and the 2010 Luxembourg runner-up to Vinci.
Last year's Luxembourg champion Azarenka is not defending her title this week.
The 2012 winner of this $220,000 tournament will earn $37,000.
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