Top Two Seeds Advance in Pattaya

World No 5 Vera Zvonareva

The resilient Zvonareva, fitter than when she played here a few years back, dominated the groundstroke rallies against Andreja Klepac of Slovenia before prevailing 6-4 6-3 after one hour and 34 minutes in front of a handful crowd at the Dusit Resort Hotel.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, whose smile similar to that of former world No 1 Martina Hingis, started slow but recovered fast to topple Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan 6-3 6-0

"A lot of people said I smile like Martina. She was my favourite player when I was growing up. But I hope people will recognize me as the person I am,'' said the pretty looking teenager who was surprised to have support from around 30 Danish fans.

Fourth seed and 2007 champion Sybille Bammer of Austria, who is here with daughter Tina, beat Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4 3-6 6-1.

Earlier wildcard entrant Nicha Lertpitaksinchai pushed Indian Sania Mirza of India to the limit before losing the match 6-7 (5-7) 5-7 after one hour and 51 minutes of unexpected challenge.

 The 17-year-old girl counter punched with the heavy hitting opponent shot by shot and even had a couple of set points at 5-4 in the first set and lead 5-3 in the second. But nerves and a lack of experience prevented her from a big upset over the Australian Open mixed doubles champion.

 "I was so excited when I was serving for both sets because this is my first time in a WTA maindraw. I was surprised to give her a very close match but she had far more experience than I do,'' said Nicha who committed two double faults to drop the first set.

 Mirza, who was crowned the mixed doubles championship with Mahesh Bhupathi, was impressed by the way her unknown rival put up the fight.

 "She didn't play like someone ranked 945. She hit like she was in the top 50 or top 100. But I'm happy I raised my level at 3-5 in both sets and pulled it through,'' said Mirza who dropped outside the 100 after missing most of the 2008 season due to injuries.

In the other first round actions, Neuza Silva of Portugal eased past Jessica More of Australia 6-2 6-1, Yuliya Beygelzimer of Ukraine ousted  Anastasia Rodionova of Russia 6-2 6-2, Yaroslava Shedova of Kazakhstan downed  Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3 6-4, Croatian Ivana Lisjak won the battle of qualifiers over Sesil Karatancheva of Kazakhstan6-2 4-6 6-3.- The Nation