Rodionova pulls Birmingham upset

BIRMINGHAM, England, June 7 (UPI) -- Arina Rodionova knocked out top-seeded Kaia Kanepi in a second-round match Tuesday at the Aegon Classic tennis tournament in England.

Rodionova, a qualifier at No. 233 in the rankings, ran past the world No. 17 Kanepi 6-4, 6-2 in 65 minutes. Rodionova faced just one break point and dropped only 11 points over nine service games in ousting Kanepi.

Fifth-seeded Roberta Vinci was also eliminated in a second-round match, losing to Mirjana Lucic 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-4), 7-5. Lucic captured the match by converting all three of her break-point chances in the third set.

Kanepi had a first-round bye in the tournament, making Tuesday's loss her first grass-court match of the year.

Also in the second round, eighth-seeded Aravane Rezai advanced when Olga Govortsova retired and No. 14-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova easily handled Coco Vandeweghe 6-2, 6-1.

The first round wrapped up with eight matches, including ninth-seeded Ayumi Morita's 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) win over Ajla Tomljanovic and a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory by 11th-seeded Yaroslava Shvedova over Zheng Jie.

Other first-round winners were Tamira Paszek, Naomi Broady, Misaki Doi, Christina McHale, Casey Dellacqua and Andrea Hlavackova.