Robson bids to reach Guangzhou final again

Britain's Laura Robson eased through to the second round of the Guangzhou Open on Tuesday as she looks to repeat last year's final appearance. Robson, seeded third this time, crushed Serbia's Jovana Jaksic 6-2, 6-4 in her opening match. Top seed Sorana Cirstea, beaten by Robson in the sem-finals last year, crashed out at the first hurdle this time, with the Romanian well beaten by Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 6-1. Robson will next play home hope Zheng Saisai, who won a gruelling 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 7-5 tie against Thailand's Luksika Kumkhum which lasted two hours 50 minutes. Also through to the next round were the second seed Alize Cornet of France, who outclassed Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 6-1, and the Chinese pair of Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai. In Tuesday's other first-round matches, Austrian Yvonne Meusburger beat Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 6-4, and Serbian Vesna Dolonc overcame Poland's Urszula Radwanska 7-5, 6-2 in a hard-fought game which lasted almost one hour 50 minutes. Current champion Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan sailed through her first-round match on Monday. Source: AFP