• WTA Tour

Cibulkova and Pavlyuchenkova through in Florida

ESPN staff
April 5, 2010
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made progress © Getty Images
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No. 3 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia hailed her service game after she beat Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1 6-4 in the first round of the MPS Group Championship.

"I was serving well and that helped me a lot. My return was not at its best, it was really short," she said. "I was just pushing the ball back on the return and in the rally just trying to move her."

Despite struggling for rhythm, Cibulkova was able to move her game above the mediocre at key moments. She broke Czink four times from the four opportunites she had, as well as winning 69 percent of her first-serve points.

Elsewhere, No. 5 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova recovered from a second-set wobble to defeat fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 7-5 5-7 6-4.

Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia beat Jill Craybas of the United States 6-1 6-4; and Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden was a 6-0 6-2 winner over American Carly Gullickson.

At the Andalucia Open, fourth seed Aravane Rezai of France demolished Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-1 6-1 in 50 minutes.

In other first-round action, Croatia's Petra Matric was unable to build on an auspicious start as she lost 6-1 6-7(3) 2-6 to Estrella Cabeza Candela of Spain. Tatjana Malek of Germany breezed past Sandra Zahlavova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-0.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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