Cibulkova enters second round at Texas Open

Second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova beat Mirjana Lucic, 6-4, 6-0 in the first round of the Texas Tennis Open Tennis tournament here late last night. It was a successful night for a couple of reasons for Cibulkova. She cracked the Top 15 on the rankings for the first time in two years – just three spots shy of her career-high – and showed she is recovered from a left abdominal strain that forced her to default her semi-final match in Stanford last month and retire from her first round match at her most recent event in Toronto. Her effort was much more convincing than the 3-6, 6-3, 8-6 one she had over the Croat in their only previous encounter earlier this year in the first round of Wimbledon. Cibulkova will face Kateryna Bondarenko iin the second round. No.5 seed Sabine Lisicki – whose last five events consisted of a title in Birmingham, semi-final showings at Wimbledon and Stanford, a quarter-final appearance at Carlsbad and a first round loss at Cincinnati – got back on the winning track with a 6-3, 6-0 defeat of Indian star Sania Mirza. “It’s definitely important for me to get a win after not playing so well in Cincinnati. I had a bad day there,” said Lisicki of her straight set loss to Shahar Peer last week. Peer also impressed on Monday, never facing a break point in her 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Anastasiya Yakimova. “I’m happy I won. I did the right things and I was very aggressive when I needed to be,” the sixth-seeded Peer said. “The first set was really good for me and I made a few more mistakes in the second set. But I’m happy I got through the first round and hopefully will play better the rest of the tournament.” One seed did go down, with fourth-seeded Yanina Wickmayer retiring with a low back injury down 1-0 in the third set against Sofia Arvidsson. In a clash involving unseeded players, wildcard Melanie Oudin snapped her eight-match WTA main draw losing streak that dated back to Fes in April. It was far from easy, though, as she trailed lucky loser Akgul Amanmuradova – a replacement for injured No.1 seed Peng Shuai – 5-2 in the first set. Oudin rallied to tie it but had to withstand four set points against her at 5-6 before taking the set, 8-6, in a tie-break. Amanmuradova then retired with a low back injury early in the second set. “No one likes to win by retirement, but I haven’t won in a match in a little while,” said Oudin, who next faces Angelique Kerber, a 4-6, 6-2, 75 winner over Chanelle Scheepers. “It was a pretty good first set and I think I had the momentum going, so a win is a win.”