On the opening day of the event, being played at the Olympic School Tennis Courts , the Romanian Cirstea currently ranked 92 upset the second seed and 56th ranked Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 6-3,6-1 in just 1 hour and 12 minutes. With a win here Sorena also avenged her defeat to Bojana at Sydney, Australia early in the year.

"I have come to the event with a positive frame of mind, the Tashkent event holds a very special place in my heart as it still the only title of my career", said Sorena after the match. Things have not been going my way for the last three years, hopefully this event will put me back on track", she added.

“I made less unforced errors and tried to focus on the game , I’m glad to have beaten Bojana who has had a very good year so far,” Sorena said.

A Dejected Bojana said: "I just came here a day ago and to play the first day is a little tough, I was not prepared on these courts I was sleeping in the match,” she said.

Latvian fourth seed Anastasija Sevastova scored a difficult 6-0, 7-6(1) win over Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva in 1 hour and 31 minutes. "My game level just dropped in the second set and I made more mistakes, but as the match progressed I started relaxing and got back in the match," said Sevetsova, who faced an harrowing time in the second set.

In other first round matches Japan’s Misaki Doi scraped past Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella 6-2, 4-6,6-4, while Russian Valeria Savinykh served out Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) , 6-4,6-3.

In the longest match of the day Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko scored a close 7-6(8), 6-3, 6-4 win over Belarusian Olga Govortsova in just below three hours to make it to Round 2 of the event.

Slovakian Jana Cepelova upset top seeded Madalina Gojnea of Romania 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 , while fifth seed Serbian Aleksandra Krunic scraped past fourth seeded Russian Marta Sirotkina 6-4, 4-6 ,7-6(2) to make it to the main draw of the event.

Sixth seeded Victoria Larriere of France and third seeded Greek Eirini Georgatou also made it into the main draw of the singles.

RESULTS (FINAL ROUND QUALIFYING)

Round 1: Jana Cepelova (SVK) bt S.1 Madalina Gojnea (ROU) 3-6,6-3,6-3 , S.6 Victoria Larriere (FRA) bt Dalila Jakupovic (SLO) 4-6,6-3,6-0 , S.5 Aleksandra Krunic (SRB) bt S.4 Marta Sirotkina (Rus) 6-4, 4-6 ,7-6(2) , S.3 Eirini Georgatou (GRE) bt Polina Pekhova(Blr ) 6-3,6-3

MAIN DRAW Singles (FIRST ROUND)

Misaki Doi ( Jpn) bt Mandy Minella ( Lux) 6-2,4-6,6-4, S.7 Evgeniya Rodina ( Rus) Iryna Bremond (Fra) 6/3 ,4/6.6/0. Valeria Savinykh (Rus) bt Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) , 6-4,6-3 , S.4 Anastasija Sevastova ( Lat) bt Mariya Koryttseva ( Ukr) 6-0,7-6(1) , Vitalia Diatchenko (Rus) bt Olga Govortsova (Blr) 7-6(6),3-6,6-4 , Sorena Cirstea (Rou) bt S.2 Bojana Jovanovski (Srb) 6-3,6-1,

DOUBLES (FIRST ROUND)

Ksenia Pervak ( Rus) / Lesia Tsurenko ( Ukr) Marvana Jucic -Salkic ( Bih) / Emma laine (Fin) 6/3,2/6 10-5 Sabina Sharipovba ( Uzb)/ Ekaterina Yashina (Rus) v/s Nigina Abduraimova (Uzb )/Polina Pekhova (Blr) 3/6 .7/6.10/7