WUHAN (China): Caroline Garcia followed up her first-round win over Venus Williams with a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) upset win over fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska at the inaugural Wuhan Open here on Monday.

The 20-year-old Frenchwoman went for broke, continuing to hit big ground strokes despite piling up unforced errors as she tried to keep Radwanska on the back foot.

In other first-round matches, No. 10 Jelena Jankovic beat Christina McHale of the US 6-4, 6-4 and No. 11 Sara Errani of Italy reeled off the last six games to overcame Heather Watson of Britain 7-5, 6-4.

Ninth-seeded Ana Ivanovic, who won the title in Tokyo on the weekend, was among the four seeded players who lost on Monday. She retired with a thigh problem when Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was serving for the match at 7-5, 6-5, while No. 12 and Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova retired with a left ankle problem at the start of the third set after splitting the first two sets with American Madison Keys.

Sabine Lisicki of Germany overwhelmed No. 14 Lucie Safarova 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 and Australian qualifier Jarmila Gajdosova ousted No. 15 Flavia Pennetta 6-1, 6-4.

Mona Barthel of Germany outsmarted crowd favourite Peng Shuai of China 6-2, 7-6 (1) and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic had a 6-4, 6-4 win over former US Open champion Sam Stosur.

Among those advancing were Alize Cornet of France, Casey Dellacqua of Australia, Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and US player Coco Vandeweghe, who defeated Annika Beck of Germany 6-3, 6-2.

Almost all the WTA’s top 20 players are in Wuhan, with the notable exception of hometown player Li Na, who announced her retirement last Friday.

The strength of the field and the more than $2 million on offer in prize money reflect the importance the women’s tour continues to place on the booming Asian tennis market.

Wuhan is one of three new WTA-level tournaments added in China this year, along with Hong Kong and Tianjin. The newcomers bring the total number of tournaments in China to six -- behind only the US, which has eight.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2014