American teen Oudin wins Sony opener

MIAMI, March 22 (UPI) -- American teenager Melanie Oudin won her opening match at the $4.5 million Sony Ericsson Open Tuesday, knocking out German Julia Goerges 7-5, 6-3.

Oudin, 19, will go up against 29th-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova in the second round. Oudin is a former U.S. Open quarterfinalist.

Other first-round winners on the hard courts at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami were Croatian wild card Petra Martic, Britain's Elena Baltacha, Romanian Monica Niculescu and Chinese Jie Zheng.

Next up for Niculescu will be former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia. Zheng will face French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur. Martic will be tested by former top-ranked Russian star Maria Sharapova.

Jankovic was the Miami runner-up in 2008. Sharapova, who has won three majors, finished second in this event in 2005 and 2006.

Last year, Kim Clijsters of Belgium beat fellow former world No. 1 Venus Williams of the United States for the title. Clijsters is seeded second this year, while Williams is out with an injury.

The top seed is world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. Also in the 96-player field are U.S. Open and Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva of Russia and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

All 32 seeds received first-round byes. The winner of the 13-day event earns a $700,000 payday.