Bardina sneaks by in Sony tournament

BANGLAORE, India, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Third-seeded Vasilisa Bardina was pushed to a third-set tiebreaker Tuesday before advancing in the Sony Ericsson International tennis tournament in India.

Bardina defeated Kristina Barrois, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), to take the first-round victory in the tournament, the start of which was delayed a day because of a public service workers strike.

Fifth-seeded Yuliana Fedak was ousted in the first round, losing, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, to Yurika Sema but fourth-seeded Jelena Kostanic Tosic was able to escape with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Sophie Ferguson. Seventh-seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn was an easy 6-3, 6-3 winner over Chin-Wei Chan.

Additional opening-round wins were posted by Akgul Amanmuradova, Olga Savchuk, Yulia Beygelzimer,Dominika Cibulkova, Su-Wei Hsieh, Tzipora Obziler, Yaroslava Shvedova and Tatiana Poutchek.

The $175,000 tournament continues through the week, with the champion taking home $25,840.