Tennis-Petrova beaten in first round for second straight year

...

Russian 11th seed Nadia Petrova suffered a first-round defeat at the French Open for the second successive year when she was dumped out 7-5 5-7 6-0 by Czech Kveta Peschke on Tuesday.

The Russian, who was forced to withdraw during the Italian Open earlier this month because of a back injury, put up little resistance in the third set and Peschke, playing her first Tour-level match of the year, cruised to victory.

The first two sets contained 10 breaks of serve but Petrova looked on course when she levelled the match.

But with her movement nowhere near as good as it usually is, Petrova could not match Peschke in the decider and the world number 182, who qualified for the event, raced through.

Keywords: TENNIS OPEN/PETROVA

[PARIS/Reuters/Finance.cz]