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Robson falls at first hurdle in Sweden

Laura Robson appeared to suffer a Palermo hangover © Getty Images

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Laura Robson failed to build on her breakthrough in Sicily last week as she fell to Anabel Medina Garrigues in the opening round of the Sony Swedish Open.

Robson became only the second British woman since 1992 to reach a WTA semi-final at the Italia Open last week, but could not continue her impressive run of results as she fell 6-4 7-6(4) in Bastad.

The British No. 4, who broke into the world's top 100 as a result of her run in Palermo, did cause her opponent some problems with her powerful groundstrokes, grabbing an early break of serve against the world No. 35.

Despite breaking her opponent on four occasions, Robson dropped her serve five times and was left to rue eight double faults as she suffered a third career defeat to the Spaniard.

Other seeds to progress to the second round included Julia Goerges, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Klara Zakopalova.

Robson was not the only Brit to taste defeat on Tuesday, with Anne Keothavong distinctly second-best in a 6-4 6-0 loss to Marina Erakovic at the Mercury Insurance Open. World No. 76 Keothavong was broken five times in a one-sided match that saw her serve 10 double faults.

There was better news for British No. 1 Heather Watson, who defeated Eleni Daniilidou 6-3 6-3. Ranked No. 71 in the world, Watson faced an opponent 41 places lower in the WTA standings, and she made that superiority pay to reach round three.

Watson fended off four break points and converted two of her own to take the first set inside the hour. Daniilidou remained a threat throughout the match but her serve was under constant pressure as Watson eased to a straight sets victory courtesy of some solid hitting from the baseline.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.