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Wednesday, Apr. 30, 2008

Peer, Azarenka win Prague openers

By Sports Network

Second-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer and third-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka were a pair of first-round winners Wednesday at the $145,000 Prague Open.

Peer held off Russian Anna Lapushchenkova 7-5, 7-5, while Azarenka handled Czech Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-4 on the red clay at this French Open tune-up.

In second-round action on Day 3, Czech wild card Karolina Pliskova ousted eighth-seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, while Italian Roberta Vinci drove out American veteran Jill Craybas 6-4, 6-4.

Other first-round play saw Czech Iveta Benesova bounce Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 and Russian Vera Dushevina douse German Martina Muller 6-0, 6-2.

In some more second-round action on Thursday, top-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva will take on Slovakian wild card Magdalena Rybarikova, while Peer will face Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova and Azarenka will battle Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek.

The 2008 Prague winner will collect $22,900.