Kyrgyzstan teen Palkina upsets second-seeded Govortsova in Tashkent

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Ksenia Palkina, a teenager from Kyrgyzstan ranked 203rd, upset second-seeded Olga Govortsova of Belarus 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-5 Tuesday in the first round of the Tashkent Open.

Govortsova is ranked 44th, and this was Palkina first victory over a player in the top 50.

"I still cannot fully realize that I've won," Palkina said. "In the middle of the match I thought my chances of winning were about 40 percent."

Top-seeded Peng Shuai of China advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Russia's Arina Rodionova. Urszula Radwanska of Poland eliminated seventh-seeded Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 7-6 (5), 6-3, and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus downed eighth-seeded Galina Voskovboeva of Russia 6-1, 6-1.

Third-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania reached the second round by beating Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus 7-6 (4), 7-5.

Romania's Monica Niculescu, seeded sixth, won the first set 7-5 and was leading 1-0 in the second against Olga Savchuk when the Ukrainian retired because of fatigue.

The last match of the first round between Vlada Ekshibarova of Uzbekistan and Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands was postponed until Wednesday because of rain.