Rising Chinese star Peng Shuai prevailed to beat Australia's
Nicole Pratt in a first round thriller at the rain-interrupted DFS
Classic in Birmingham.
Peng came back from one set down to beat the Aussie 2-6, 7-5,
6-4 in a marathon match that lasted one hour and 45 minutes.
China's Yuan Meng, however, suffered an early exit from the
tournament after losing to Slovakian Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-4 in
the first round.
In other first-round results, 14th seed Sania Mirza of India
beat Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and Bethanie Mattek
of the United States advanced past Germany's Julia Schruff 6-4, 6-7
(6-8), 6-1.
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(CRI June 14, 2006)
