Cornet wins Linz opener
Linz, Austria - Eighth-seeded Alize Cornet of France highlighted Monday’s opening-round winners at the $600,000 Generali Ladies Linz tennis event.
Cornet defeated Chinese Jie Zheng 6-3, 6-2 on the indoor hardcourt at Intersport Arena.
In other Day-1 play, Estonian Kaia Kanepi drilled Austrian wild card Melanie Klaffner 6-4, 6-0 and Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik handled Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 7-5.
Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, who is not defending her title here this week, defeated Swiss Patty Schnyder in last year’s Linz finale. Schnyder is this week’s fourth seed.
The top seeds here are French Open champion and Australian Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Russian Vera Zvonareva. The top-four seeds, including No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, all received first-round byes.
The 2008 Linz champion will pocket $95,500.
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