Morariu moves through to second round

Fifth-seed Corina Morariu of the United States, last year's champion at the Croatian Bol Ladies Open, went through to the second round of this year's open, beating unseeded Petra Mandula of Hungary 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the £3m108,280 tournament.

Morariu, ranked No. 33 by the WTA, controlled the match throughout, starting with 4-1 in the first set. Mandula managed to take a lead only in the second set, with 3-2, but then lost three games in a row and was out.

Cara Black of Zimbabwe, seeded 8th, defeated Miriam Oremans of Netherlands, 6-3, 6-2. Black had ups and downs during the nearly 90-minute match, taking a 3-0 lead in the first set only to let Oremans tie to 3-3 before again recovering.

Angeles Montolio of Spain, the WTA's No. 54, ousted Sandra Kleinova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-3. It was Kleinova's third recent defeat in the first round, after tournaments last month in Portugal and Hungary.

Only three matches were played on the first day of the tournament that has three of the world's top 20 competitors, all from France - Julie Halard-Decugis, ranked 9th, Sandrine Testud, 11th, and Amelie Mauresmo, 17th.

Result

First round (prefix number denotes seeding):

(8) C Black (Zim) bt M Oremans (Neth) 6-3 6-2 (5) C Morariu (US) bt P Mandula (Hun) 6-3 6-4 A Montolio (Sp) bt S Kleinova (Cze) 6-3 6-3