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Published: Wednesday October 14, 2009 MYT 10:28:00 AM

Tennis: Top-seeded Pennetta beats Shaughnessy in General Ladies

LINZ, Austria: Top-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy routed Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States 6-1, 6-1 in the opening round of the Generali Ladies on Tuesday.

The 11th-ranked Italian, who had lost both previous matches against Shaughnessy, broke the American's serve five times.

Pennetta holds eight WTA Tour titles but has yet to win an indoor event.

She was also in the running for the last berth in the season-ending WTA Championships.

She next plays Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, who defeated Roberta Vinci of Italy 7-5, 6-1.

Julia Goerges of Germany beat sixth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-3.

Goerges, a qualifier, converted six of 13 break points against Cirstea, who struggled with her serve.

All the other seeds in action progressed. No. 5 Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic rallied from a break down in the opening set to beat qualifier Stephanie Gehrlein of Germany 7-5, 6-0.

No. 7 Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic downed Patricia Mayr of Austria 6-2, 6-1, and No. 8 Sara Errani of Italy beat Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-2, 6-3.

Other winners included Olga Govortsova of Belarus and Tatjana Malek of Germany.

Results Tuesday from the Generali Ladies, a $220,000 (euro137,000) WTA Tour indoor event at Intersport Arena (seedings in parentheses):

Singles

First Round=

Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Germany, def. Roberta Vinci, Italy, 7-5, 6-1.

Olga Govortsova, Belarus, def. Petra Martic, Croatia, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-2.

Sara Errani (8), Italy, def. Arantxa Parra Santonja, Spain, 6-2, 6-3.

Tatjana Malek, Germany, def. Aravane Rezai, France, 7-5, 7-5.

Julia Goerges, Germany, def. Sorana Cirstea (6), Romania, 6-3, 6-3.

Flavia Pennetta (1), Italy, def. Meghann Shaughnessy, United States, 6-1, 6-1.

Lucie Safarova (7), Czech Republic, def. Patricia Mayr, Austria, 6-2, 6-1.

Iveta Benesova (5), Czech Republic, def. Stephanie Gehrlein, Germany, 7-5, 6-0. - AP