Unseeded Italian Nastassja Burnett advanced to the second round of the Tashkent Open tennis tournament by beating second-seeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in straight sets on Monday in Uzbekistan.
Burnett missed two match points before wrapping up the victory 7-6 (7-4) 6-4.
“I was feeling a little nervous and was in a hurry to finish the match,” Burnett said. “But on the third match point, I settled down a bit, calmed my nerves and clinched the issue. I can’t think about what happened then but will settle down and think of how not to repeat the same mistakes.”
Third-seeded Yvonne Meusburger of Austria defeated Hungary’s Timea Babos 2-6 6-2 6-1.
“I was playing short in the first set and finding it tough to get into the match,” Meusburger said.
“In the second and the third set, I started playing a little longer and got better. I started attacking her second serve and that helped me quite a bit.”
Top-seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, Romanian fifth seed Alexandra Cadantu and sixth-seeded fellow Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu also advanced.