Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova made a triumphant return in her first match since Wimbledon, defeating Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-6 (9/7) on Tuesday at a 1.34 million-dollar WTA tournament.
Kuznetsova, the 2003 US Open champion, has not won a WTA title or advanced past the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam event this season, but she reached the finals at Indian Wells, Berlin and Rome. Kuznetsova, 22, broke Vinci for the second time to close the first set and rallied from 6-5 down in the tie-breaker to win four of the last five points and book a third-round date with either Czech Lucie Safarova or American Meghann Shaughnessy.
China's Peng Shuai advanced to the third round when a virus forced Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik to retire in the second set of the US Open tune-up event, which pays a top prize of 181,980 dollars.
Peng led 6-1, 4-2 when Srebotnik - a quarterfinalist in her past two appearances in the event - quit the match, advancing the Chinese standout to a possible third-round match against top seed Justine Henin of Belgium. Also advancing to the third round was Israel's Shahar Peer, who eliminated Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 6-2. Peer reached the quarter-finals last year in her first appearance at this event.
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