Jankovic notches first-round win in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Eighth-seeded Jelena Jankovic rolled to a first-round win Monday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Jankovic defeated Petra Cetkovska 6-2, 6-2. Jankovic lost only nine points on serve in each set and countered Cetkovska's lone service break with three of her own in the second set.

Cetkovska hindered herself with 10 double faults and Jankovic capitalized on the second serve when in, winning nearly two-thirds of those points.

Julia Goerges rallied for a 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the only match Monday to go three sets. Goerges survived two breaks in the second set but won the first six points of the tiebreaker. She didn't face a break point in the third set.

Goerges earned a second-round match with world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, who improved to 17-0 Sunday when she won the Qatar Total Open. Azarenka had a first-round bye this week.

Also Monday, Maria Kirilenko topped Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-0; Flavia Pennetta beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 and will play Jankovic in the second round; and Shahar Peer ousted Fatma Al Nabhani 6-3, 6-1 in a battle of wild-card entrants.