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Moscow - Russia’s Maria Kirilenko defeated her compatriot and wild card Elena Vesnina in the first round of the Kremlin Cup tennis Wednesday.
Seventh seed Kirilenko had to survive a set point in the first set before surging back with two breaks of Vesnina’s serve. She raced through the second for a 7-5, 6-1 victory.
Kirilenko, who is having the best season in her career, is still in chase of her first Kremlin Cup title and hopes to go one better than 2010, when she lost the final to current world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
Kirilenko next plays Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, who had ended the hopes of another Russian player in Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Earlier, Klara Zakopalova ousted eighth seed and Czech compatriot Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-4.
Russia’s Valeria Solovieva won a battle of two qualifiers against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, prevailing 6-4, 6-2 to set up a second-round match with fourth seed Ana Ivanovic.
Samantha Stosur is the top seed for the $740,000 hard-court event, which runs through Sunday in the Russian capital.
