Olaru reaches second round in Tashkent

Fifth-seeded Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru highlighted Monday’s first-round winners at the US$145,000 Tashkent Open.

Olaru came from behind to beat Czech Petra Cetkovska 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 at Tashkent Tennis Centre.

In other opening-round play, qualifier Ksenia Palkina, of Kyrgyzstan, pasted Belarusian qualifier Ekaterina Dzehalevich 6-2, 6-2 and Uzbekistan’s own Akgul Amanmuradova topped Czech Hana Sromova 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

This week’s top seeds are Belarusian Victoria Azarenka and Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova. Chinese Tiantian Sun beat Uzbekistan’s Iroda Tulyaganova in last year’s finale here.

The 2007 champion will claim US$21,165.