Top seed Flavia Pennetta has taken a straight sets victory over Israel’s Shahar Peer in the first night match at the Moorilla Hobart International.
Pennetta took the first set comfortably and raced to an early lead in the second before Peer started to fight back.
Pushing the second set to a tiebreak, Peer looked set to send the match into a third and final set, before Pennetta regained her composure to take the win.
“I’m very happy, I was a little nervous near the end. We both play very well,” Pennetta said.
“It was tough to play Shahar; we are good friends and practice a lot together so it was tough to out there.”
The Italian made the semifinal of the Moorilla Hobart International in 2008 and said it is good being back in Hobart.
“I was happy to be back here, it is a very relaxing place, it is a great place to prepare for the Australian Open.”
In the doubles, Sania Mirza and Francesca Schiavone defeated Liga Dekmeijere and Ipek Senoglu, 7-6(7) 6-4.
Play gets underway at 11:00 am tomorrow.
No.4 seed Jie Zheng will start the action on Centre Court against Gisela Dulko. She will be followed by Alona Bondarenko who meets Petra Kvitova and then Flavia Pennetta who comes up against Magdalena Rybarikova.
Qualifier Urszula Radwanska will be hoping to carry her recent form into her match against Melinda Czink.
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