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Ivanovic, Halep win opening matches in Sofia

Sofia: Ana Ivanovic and Simona Halep cruised to straight-set victories on Tuesday in their opening round-robin matches at the season-ending Tournament of Champions.Top-seeded Halep of Romania defeated Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-3 in the Serdika

ivanovic halep win opening matches in sofia ivanovic halep win opening matches in sofia
Sofia: Ana Ivanovic and Simona Halep cruised to straight-set victories on Tuesday in their opening round-robin matches at the season-ending Tournament of Champions.




Top-seeded Halep of Romania defeated Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-3 in the Serdika group, while the other tournament favorite, Ivanovic, routed Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova 6-0, 6-2 in the Sredets group.

In Tuesday's third match, third-seeded Maria Kirilenko retired due to injury against France's Alize Cornet, and had to quit the tournament for a second consecutive year.

Cornet was leading 5-0 in the first when Kirilenko called for a medical time out, before later abandoning the competition.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina will replace Kirilenko.