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Peer suffers early exit in Madrid
May 06, 2011
Sixth seed Na Li of China had to battle her way past Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-4 7-6 (8/6) .
Another seed was sent crashing in the second round matches with number 13 Andrea Petkovic going out to Arantxa Parra Santonja.
Santonja, who had taken out No.20-ranked Flavia Pennetta in the first round on Sunday, continued her good form, winning a routine first set against Petkovic then battling back from deficits of 4-2 and 5-3 to claim the second set, completing another top 20 win 6-2 7-6 (7/5.
"I've worked hard mentally," the Spaniard told the WTA website. "I was trying to be optimistic and thought I could do it. I'm so happy. I hope I can continue like this."
Second seed Vera Zvonareva and eighth seed Maria Sharapova both progressed through to the third round, winning all-Russian ties against Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova, respectively.
"When I lost that second set I told myself it wasn't over. I won the first set and did some things right so I went back to that," Sharapova said. "There weren't many breaks in the match and it was important to be more aggressive. She likes to be the first one to hit the ball; I wanted to take that away from her."
Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka is also in the third round following her 6-1 6-1 defeat of qualifier Sofia Arvidsson.
In other first round matches, Lucie Safarova, Iveta Benesova and Roberta Vinci all went through, while former world number one Dinara Safina came from a set down to beat Nuria Llagostera Vives 5-7 6-4 6-3.
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