Date-Krumm falls in first round again

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- No. 1-seed Kimiko Date-Krumm was among three seeded players to drop first-round matches Wednesday at the 125K-level OEC Taipei WTA Challenger.

Qualifier Valeria Solovyeva ousted Date-Krumm 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 with a pair of third-set breaks. The match overall was fairly even as Solovyeva won 92 points to Date-Krumm's 89 but Solovyeva took two-thirds of the points on serve in the third set and limited Date-Krumm to one break-point chance while getting the two decisive breaks.

It was the second consecutive week Date-Krumm entered a WTA 125K tournament as the No. 1 seed and lost in the opening round. This time it was to a player ranked 200 spots behind the No. 54th Date-Krumm and less than half her age (43-21).

Katarzyna Piter advanced when, after she built a 6-4, 1-0 lead, third-seeded Zhang Shuai retired with an injury. Yaroslava Shvedova handed No. 4-seeded Ayumi Morita a 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 loss.

No. 7-seeded Misaki Doi, however, needed only 52 minutes to dispatch Julia Glushko 6-2, 6-0. Doi won nearly two-thirds of the points in the first-round match.

Alison Van Uytvanck topped Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 6-4 and Zheng Saisai defeated Anna Schmiedlova 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in second-round matches.