Errani too good at Mexican Open

SaraErrani-cropped

Second seed Sara Errani barely raised a sweat as she dismantled Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka in straight sets at the Mexican Open on Tuesday.

Fresh from taking out the Rio Open last week, Errani had no trouble switching from clay to hard courts after defeating Hradecka 6-1 6-3 in just 69 minutes.

Errani got the better of Anna Schmiedlova in last week's final in Rio de Janiero and she extended her winning streak to six matches, having won 10 of 12 points from 3-3 in the second set to emerge unscathed from her first-round encounter at the WTA event.

Next up for Errani on the Mexican hard courts in Acapulco is Monica Puig.

"It was not easy coming from Rio - it was a long time travelling here and the change of surface is never easy," Errani said afterwards.

"But I'm really happy how the match went today and how I played."

French third seed Carolina Garcia also progressed to the second round on Tuesday.

Garcia saw off Polona Hercog 6-4 6-1 in a little over an hour to set-up a meeting with Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Fifth-seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky will face Lesia Tsurenko in the second round after rallying from a set down to prevail 2-6 6-2 6-3 against qualifier Richel Hogenkamp.

Tsurenko eliminated Anasofia Sanchez 6-2 6-0.

There was no such luck for fellow seeds Sloane Stephens, Roberta Vinci and Ajla Tomljanovic.

American Stephens - seeded seventh - was stunned 6-3 6-2 by Swede Johanna Larsson, who will play Alexandra Krunic.

Krunic accounted for Schmiedlova 6-2 6-1.

A right shoulder injury saw Italian sixth seed Vinci retire against Kiki Bertens trailing 6-4 in the first set.

Lucky loser Sesil Karatantcheva awaits Bertens in the second round.

Magdalena Rybarikova posted a 6-3 6-4 win over Australian 10th seed Tomljanovic, earning a clash with qualifier Elena Bogdan, who edged Lauren Davis 6-4 7-6 (7-3).

Meanwhile, Mariana Duque-Marina secured a showdown with top seed Maria Sharapova after the Colombian lucky loser came from behind to beat Louisa Chirico 1-6 6-3 7-5.

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