Cirstea, Rodina post upsets in Austria

LINZ, Austria, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Sorana Cirstea and Evgeniya Rodina notched second-round upset wins Wednesday at the Generali Ladies Linz tennis tournament in Austria.

Cirstea ousted fourth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6, 6-0, 6-4. After losing the first set, Cirstea won eight consecutive games in turning the match around.

Rodina capped a long day of tennis with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over sixth-seeded Julia Goerges. Rodina lost her serve just once -- when she was serving for the match at 5-2 of the second set. She finished off the win in the 10th game on her second match point opportunity.

Alberta Brianti advanced out of the first round with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 upset of fifth-seeded Sabine Lisicki.

Also in the first round, No. 8-seeded Daniela Hantuchova defeated Petra Martic 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 6-1 and ninth-seeded Flavia Pennetta beat Elena Vesnina 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

Anastasia Rodionova was a 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 winner over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Patricia Mayr-Achleitner topped Stephanie Foretz Gacon 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in other first-round play.