British number four falls to first round defeat in Bastad
Laura Robson's hopes of building on last week's stunning run to the semi-finals in Palermo were dashed when she was beaten in the first round of the Swedish Open in Bastad on Tuesday.
Robson, who jumped back into the world's top 100 as a result of her heroics in Sicily, was beaten 6-4 7-6 (7-4) by Spanish third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues.
The British number three claimed the first break of serve in the opening set but struggled to hold her own against the world number 35, dropping it three times to lose the first set.
Robson was let down by her serve again in the second set, as despite breaking the Medina Garrigues serve twice she was forced into a tie-break where her opponent's experience told to clinch victory in one hour and 41 minutes.
Indeed, it proved a good day for the majority of leading seeds as Julia Georges, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Klara Zakopalova all made it through to the second round.
Second seed Georges beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-2 6-2 and number five seed Pavlyuchenkova overcame Patricia Mayr of Austria by the same scoreline.
Zakopalova, seeded sixth, came from a set down to beat Germany's Annika Beck 2-6 6-3 6-4.
However, Swede Sofia Arvidsson delighted home fans as she got the better of fourth seed Roberta Vinci, running out at 6-4 7-5 winner.
Elsewhere there were wins for Israel's Shahar Peer and Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria who saw off Lourdes Dominguez and Lucie Hradecka respectively.
