Safarova, Cornet ousted in first-round upsets in Budapest

BUDAPEST, Hungary, July 9 (UPI) -- Top seeds Lucia Safarova and Alize Cornet were both beaten in straight sets Tuesday in first-round play of the Hungarian Grand Prix tennis tournament.

Safarova, seeded No. 1, was routed by Valeria Solovyeva 6-1, 6-0. Solovyeva took nearly two-thirds of the points off Safarova's serve and cashed in half of her 10 break chances. She also fought off all nine break opportunities Safarova had.

Andrea Hlavackova eliminated Cornet 6-4, 6-2 with eight breaks in Cornet's nine games serving. Cornett was seeded second.

No. 6-seeded Chanelle Scheepers beat Michaela Honcova 6-4, 6-1 and eighth-seeded Anna Tatishvili was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Reka-Luca Jani as six of the eight seeded players -- all but the top two -- made it through to the second round.

Alexandra Cadantu won two-thirds of the points in a 6-0, 6-1 romp past Patricia Mayr-Achleitner and Yvonne Meusburger won more than 60 percent of the points in beating Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0, 6-2.

The other first-round results saw Danka Kovinic get past Johanna Konta 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; Petra Martic beat Vanda Lukacs 6-3, 6-0; Timea Babos take out Aleksandra Krunic 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3; and Shahar Peer handle Xenia Knoll 6-2, 6-2.