Kanepi, Knapp win at Austrian tournament

BAD GASTEIN, Austria, July 24 (UPI) -- Kaia Kanepi and Karin Knapp collected first-round victories Tuesday at the $175,000 Gastein Ladies clay-court tennis tournament in Austria.

The Kanepi and Knapp matches were the only ones completed as rain caused a series of postponements. Among the matches pushed back to Wednesday was a first-round pairing of Maria Elena Camerin and Maria Emilia Salerni, who were supposed to play Monday but had the match pushed back because of darkness.

Kanepi, seeded fourth in the Gastein event, needed a third set to get past Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. Knapp, seeded fifth, was a straight-set 6-2, 6-3 winner over Eva Hoch.

The only other match started had Anna-Lena Groenefeld ahead of No. 3-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 when play was stopped.

Top-seeded Francesca Schiavone and eight-seeded Lourdes Dominguez Lino both their first-round matched postponed because of the rain.