Bartoli among Dubai first-round winners

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- No. 10-seeded Marion Bartoli was among the first-round winners Monday at the $2 million Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Bartoli ousted Kimiko Date-Krumm 7-6 (10-8), 6-4. She took nearly as many points on Date-Krumm's serve as Date-Krumm did (38-35).

The players recorded six breaks between them in the first set with Bartoli winning the lengthy tiebreaker. Bartoli converted both of her break-point chances in the second set to advance.

Other seeded players making the second round were No. 15 Alisa Kleybanova, who took 73 percent of the points in the third set of 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; and 16th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, who was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Nuria Llagostera Vives by taking four of her five break-point opportunities.

A pair of qualifiers took straight-set wins. Chanelle Scheepers knocked off Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-2 and Zhang Shuai beat Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-4.

Other first-round winners were Alexandra Dulgheru, Anastasija Sevastova and Timea Bacsinszky.

The 64-player Dubai field features eight Top 10 players, including No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki. World No. 1 Kim Clijsters skipped the event and No. 6 Venus Williams, who won the event in 2009 and 2010, is injured.