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| Jill Craybas - Bank Of West Classic HP 373 x 280 |
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Seventh-seeded Shahar Peer shook off a first set loss, winning 12 straight games for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over wild card Amber Liu in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic on Monday.
Tatiana Golovin earned her first WTA victory since March, beating Alona Bondarenko 7-5, 6-2 in another first-round match. Also, Sybille Bammer beat Marion Bartoli, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, and Jill Craybas defeated Chandra Rubin, 6-2, 6-3. Bammer meets third-seeded Nicole Vaidisova in the second round.
Peer struggled through the first set, lost the first game of the second set and was trailing 0-40 in the second game when things began to click.
"She had the advantage playing on her court, but I have no excuses," Peer said. "Amber played a lot of winners in the first set. I just mixed it up better and changed my strategy a little bit."
The 19-year-old Peer won 15 of 17 points after losing seven of the first eight of the second set.
"I was still there at 0-40 on my serve and in the end I was playing well," said Peer, who has a cousin currently fighting in Lebanon with the Israeli Army. "I had a couple of bad days last week because it was weighing on my mind and people are dying, but you have to live your life."
Liu, a two-time NCAA singles champion while at Stanford, was playing in her third professional tournament.
"The biggest difference between her and me was she started serving better and she had more energy," Liu said.
The 18-year-old Golovin injured her ankle in March at Miami against Maria Sharapova and dropped out of that event.
"I'm starting to feel better now," Golovin said. "I haven't had a lot of matches on hardcourt, so I'm taking it little by little and trying to regain my confidence."
The 32nd-ranked Golovin sustained ligament damage and a bone bruise at Indian Wells.
"I had to start from zero again," she said. "My left leg lost everything from not doing anything. It still gets sore after matches, but the doctor said it would be sore for another two months."
She tried coming back for both the French Open and Wimbledon, losing in the first round each time. She played Fed Cup for France, and then lost her only match on a hardcourt at Cincinnati last week.
Rubin, recovering from knee surgery, played her first tour event in exactly one year. Her last appearance was a loss in Cincinnati to Daniela Hantuchova on July 24, 2005.