Winner of the tour event at Bad Gastein and third seeded here Yvonne Meusburger of Austria survived some anxious moments to score a 2-6,6-2,6-1 win over Hungary’s Timea Babos in a tough first round encounter marked by some brilliant rallies.

Top seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia outhit Japanese Kurumi Nara 6-4,6-3 , while fourth seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia ended the conquest of qualifier Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 6-3,6-2.

Fifth seeded Alexandra Cadantu of Romania outwitted Uzbek wildcard Sabine Sharipova 6-2, 6-0 in a one sided encounter.

Last year’s winner and sixth seeded Irina- Camelia Begu saw off a fighting qualifier Alexandra Panova of Russia 7-6(8), 6-1 in the first round.

In other first round matches Mandy Minella of Luxembourg rallied out Russian Olga Puchkova 6-2,6-3 , Ukrainian Nadiya Kichenok scored a creditable 7-5,6-2 win over former finalist Eva Birnerova (CZE) .

Japanese Qualifier Risa Ozaki also made it to the second round at the expense of another qualifier Kateryna Kozlova winning 7-5, 6-2. In a well-contested encounter Belarusian Olga Govortsova rallied out former winner here Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek 7-5, 2-6, 6-1

First Round results

[1] [Q] Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt Kurumi Nara (JPN) 6-4, 6-3 Nastassja Burnett (ITA) bt [2] Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 7-6(4), 6-4
[3] Yvonne Meusburger (AUT) bt Timea Babos (HUN) 2-6, 6-2, 6-1
[4] Donna Vekic (CRO) bt [Q] Lyudmyla Kichenok (UKR) 6-3, 6-2
[5] Alexandra Cadantu (ROU) bt [WC] S Sharipova (UZB) 6-2, 6-0
[6] Irina- Camelia Begu (ROU) bt [Q] Alexandra Panova (RUS) 7-6(8), 6-1
Mandy Minella (LUX) bt Olga Puchkova (RUS) 6-2, 6-3
Nadiya Kichenok (UKR) bt Eva Birnerova (CZE) 7-5, 6-2
Olga Govortsova (BLR) bt Michaella Krajicek (NED)7-5, 2-6, 6-1