Wozniacki wins Nottingham opener, 1st match in 10 weeks
NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) - Caroline Wozniacki's first match in more than two months ended in victory as she beat Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Nottingham Open on Tuesday.
Wozniacki rolled her right ankle while practicing for the Fed Cup in early April and she missed the European clay-court swing. She'd last played in late March in Miami.
"It's just great to be back," she said. "You feel a bit rusty out there but at the same time it could have been a lot worse."
It was worse for two other seeds: No. 5 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium lost to Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 7-6 (7), and No. 7 Mona Barthel of Germany fell to Alison Riske of the United States 6-2, 6-1.
Hlavackova was a lucky loser from qualifying who was promoted late into the main draw.
It was a bad day for two of the British hopefuls, with Laura Robson losing 6-3, 7-5 to qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal and sixth-seeded Heather Watson bowing out as Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia came from a set down to win 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Eighth-seeded Monica Puig of Puerto Rico cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Zhang Kai-Lin of China.
Two other qualifiers also won their openers: Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Tara Moore of Britain, who was making her main draw debut on tour.