Serena advances

Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open by beating Sesil Karatancheva of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday. Williams broke the 131st-ranked Karatancheva’s serve five times to advance at the clay-court tournament in Bastad on Sweden’s west coast. She will next face 104th-ranked Anna Tatishvili of Georgia, who beat 16-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Third-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, sixth-seeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, Mathilda Johansson of France, Teliana Pereira of Brazil and Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands also advanced.

Second-seeded Annika Beck of Germany overcame 12 double-faults to beat Shahar Peer 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Gastein Ladies on Tuesday at Bad Gastein, Austria. Beck, who earned a top50 ranking for the first time this week after her fourth quarterfinal of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, was broken four times but saved eight other break points. Beck next plays Mandy Minella of Luxembourg, who defeated Dia Evtimova of Bulgaria 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

Petra Martic of Croatia rallied to beat former champion Andrea

Petkovic 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3. Martic will face Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in the second round. The Austrian defeated Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia 6-4, 6-3. Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland held serve throughout to defeat No. 5 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-2 and set up a second-round match against Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, who beat Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-3, 6-1. In her first career WTA match, Austrian wild card Lisa-Marie Moser defeated Romania’s Elena Bogdan 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4 and will next play top-seeded Mona Barthel. No. 6 Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa beat Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-4; Estrella Cabeza Candela of Spain defeated Tadeja Majeric of Slovenia 6-1, 6-3; Elina Svitolina of Ukraine beat Michaela Honcova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2; and Alexandra Cadantu beat Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal 6-2, 6-4.