BIRMINGHAM, England, June 11 (UPI) -- Ninth-seeded Julia Vakulenko rolled to a straight-set, first-round win Monday in the $200,000 DFS Classic grass-court tournament in England.
Vakulenko was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Tiantian Sun as most of the seeded players going Monday advanced. One exception was No. 14 Michaella Krajicek, who was ousted by Yuliana Fedak, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
No. 12-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska easily handled Anne Kremer, 6-1, 6-3; 13th-seeded Meilen Tu whipped Roberta Vinci, 6-1, 6-2; No. 15 Eleni Daniilidou topped Laura Granville, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); and 16th-seeded Maria Kirilenko beat Raquel Kops-Jones, 6-3, 6-2.
Also Monday, Lilia Osterloh got past Varvara Lepchenko, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3; Elena Likhovtseva leveled Bethanie Mattek, 6-3, 6-0; and Sania Mirza beat Maria Elena Camerin, 6-3, 6-3.
The tournament's top seeds, Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic, who both reached the semifinals of last week's French Open, were among highly seeded players granted first-round byes.
