Ostapenko defends ends at first round in St Petersburg

Omnisports

February 9, 2016 2:21 AM

Defending champion Jelena Ostapenko bid an early farewell at the St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy.

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Jelena Ostapenko's defence of the St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy ground to a halt in round one as she was dumped out by Yanina Wickmayer on Tuesday.

Teenager Ostapenko defeated Patricia Maria Tig in three sets to clinch the title in Russia 12 months ago.

However, Ostapenko was beaten 6-4 6-3 by a player 30 places above her in the rankings.

Wickmayer had lost the one previous meeting between the pair in Slovakia last year, but Ostapenko struggled on serve and was broken five times in the match.

It was a straight-forward day for ninth seed Monica Niculescu, though. The Romanian saw off Natalia Vikhlyantseva 6-0 6-3, while Timea Babos beat Katerina Siniakova 7-6 (7-0) 7-5.

Kateryna Kozlova upset the odds to beat Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-4, but fellow qualifier Tamira Paszek was on the end of a 6-3 6-3 defeat to Carina Witthoft.

Fifth-seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was pushed all the way by Klara Koukalova but came out on top with a 6-4 4-6 6-4 triumph, while Margarita Gasparyan made light work of Bojana Jovanovski, winning 6-1 6-2 in just under 57 minutes.

Omnisports

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