MOSCOW (AP) — Fifth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova started her Kremlin Cup campaign with a win on Tuesday, beating 16-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-3, 6-4.
Pavlyuchenkova, the world No. 30, will now meet either Alison Riske of the United States or fellow Russian Daria Kasatkina, a wild card entrant, in the second round.
“It’s hard to start your first match at a tournament, especially at home, and you always want to play well, and I think it really wasn’t bad,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who admitted she “hardly knew anything” about Konjuh before the match.
Palvyuchenkova is chasing her second WTA title of the year after winning the Open GDF Suez in Paris in February.
She has played at the Kremlin Cup six times before, only progressing past the first round once, last year, when she lost in the semifinals to eventual winner Simona Halep.
There was an upset as France’s Caroline Garcia, seeded eighth, lost 6-4 6-2 to Moscow-born Serbian Aleksandra Krunic, who is ranked 73 places below Garcia in 109th.
“It was difficult, she played really well,” said Garcia, adding that Krunic is “a tough player, she’s moving very well and she has a good serve.”
Krunic’s reward is a second-round meeting with Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova.
Local favourite Elena Vesnina has struggled with injuries this season and didn’t last long in front of her home crowd, losing her first-round match with Czech player Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-2.
In the men’s draw, last year’s losing finalist Mikhail Kukushkin started slowly against Russian youngster Karen Khachanov, but recovered to win 6-7(3), 6-0, 6-2.
The Russian-born Kazakh player, ranked 74th in the world, now meets fourth-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini.
U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, seeded second, will face Evgeny Donskoy in the second round after the Russian wild card beat Israeli Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-0.
Former world No. 10 Juan Monaco of Argentina also progressed, beating Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. In the second round, he meets one of two Russians, either seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny or qualifier Viktor Baluda.
The Kremlin Cup, now in its 25th year, is an ATP 250 tournament for the men with a prize fund of $855,490. For the women, it is a WTA Premier tournament offering $710,000 in total prize money.
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