Nigina Abduraimova advances to second round of Tashkent Open
Home favorite Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan upset fourth-seeded Lara Arruabarrena of Spain 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the Tashkent Open on Tuesday for only the second WTA tour victory of her career.
Abduraimova had not won a tour-level match since 2009 but was a wild-card entry in Tashkent and broke her opponent twice in each set to reach the second round.
Second-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania advanced easily by beating Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1, while No. 3 Karin Knapp of Italy ousted Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey 6-2, 7-6 (3).
Fifth-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia and No. 6 Misaki Doi of Japan also advanced in straight sets.
Ksenia Pervak of Russia caused the only other upset, beating seventh-seeded Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 7-6 (4), 6-0.
