Vinci, Hercog struggle into Carlsbad 2nd round

Roberta Vinci of Italy finished strongly for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski on Monday at the Mercury Insurance Open; an event hit hard by injury withdrawals.

Vinci came from a set and break down to square the match and dominated the final set as she twice broke Jovanovski's serve and held off three break points on her serve.

The Italian was one of only two seeded players to appear Monday, following the withdrawals of Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, former world No.1 Kim Clijsters and two-time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova with muscle strains.

The other seeded winner was No. 16 seed Polona Hercog, who needed more than two hours before defeating qualifier Natalie Grandin, 7-6 (1), 2-6, 6-4. Hercog won despite 10 double faults and a first-serve percentage of 63 percent. The South African Grandin, a qualifier into the event, made 71 percent of her first serves, but won less than half of the points when she did get it in.

Vinci's second-round opponent will be China's Zheng Jie, who struggled past Croatia's Mirjana Lucic 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (3).

Hercog will face Russia's Vera Dushevina, who was a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over France's Aravane Rezai on a day of several hard-fought matches.

Alexa Glatch of the United States beat Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 6-2; Elena Baltacha of Great Britain cruised past young American Melanie Oudin 6-0, 6-1; Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson was a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Ashley Weinhold of the U.S.; and American veteran Jill Craybas saw off Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada 6-1, 6-1.

Craybas will face third-ranked and top-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the second round. Glatch's win advances her to a match against No. 2 seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany.