Indian Wells, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Former champion Vera Zvonareva came up a first-round loser Wednesday at the $5.9 million BNP Paribas Open tennis event.
Chinese Peng Shuai dismissed the two-time Grand Slam runner-up and one-time world No. 2 Zvonareva, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5, on the hardcourts at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The wild card Zvonareva was the Indian Wells champ back in 2009.
Meanwhile, Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa was tied with former top-10 star Nadia Petrova 1-1 in the first set when the oft-injured Russian wild card retired on Day 1.
American Lauren Davis handled qualifier Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei 6-4, 6-3, while American wild card Shelby Rogers topped Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-0, 6-4, and Serbian Bojana Jovanovski dismissed American Alison Riske 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Davis is rewarded with a second-round match against former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
Also advancing were Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, German Annika Beck and Austrian Yvonne Meusburger.
This week's top seeds are Australian Open champ Li Na, Agnieszka Radwanska, the U.S. Open runner-up Azarenka, and French Open runner-up and reigning Indian Wells titlist Maria Sharapova, who topped 2011 champion and two-time Indian Wells runner-up Caroline Wozniacki in last year's finale. Sharapova also won this event in 2006 and was the runner-up to Azarenka in 2012.
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