Top seed Pervak retires in Baku, Panova advances

Jul 24, 2012 - 4:06 PM Baku, Azerbaijan (Sports Network) - Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan, the top seed in the Baku Cup tennis tournament, retired Tuesday during the third set of her first-round match against American Julia Cohen.

The two had split the first two sets and Cohen held a 3-2 lead in the third when Pervak called it quits because of heat illness. Pervak was last year's Baku runner-up to Vera Zvonareva.

Cohen, who is 2-2 in her WTA main draw matches this year, will take on Russian Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round. Kudryavtseva advanced with a first- round win Monday.

Russian Alexandra Panova is now the highest seed remaining. The second seed advanced Tuesday with a 7-5, 7-6 (9-7) win over Australia's Sacha Jones. Next up for Panova is Poland's Sandra Zaniewska, a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) winner against Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine.

Other seeded winners Tuesday were Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia and Russian Nina Bratchikova. The fifth-seeded Jovanovski needed three sets to dispose of Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, while the sixth-seeded Bratchikova cruised to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Austria's Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.

Russia's Olga Puchkova ousted seventh-seeded Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, 6-3, 7-6 (14-12) and Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova eliminated eighth-seeded Czech Eva Birnerova in a 6-1, 6-1 rout.

Also winning Tuesday were Italy's Alberta Brianti, Poland's Marta Domachowska and Spain's Laura Pous-Tio and Estrella Cabeza Candela.