Serena sSuffers Shock Defeat

World number one and defending champion Serena Williams suffered a shock first-round defeat to Jana Cepelova at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. 
The American top seed was seen off in straight sets as her Slovakian opponent recorded a 6-4 6-4 victory in an hour and 25 minutes to move into the second round.

The disappointed three-time winner here admitted she had difficulty with her serve during the match, and she told familycirclecup.com: "I think she was a great counter puncher today.

"I was really struggling with my serve. I didn't really get any big ones in, so I took the pace off. It wasn't my day. It wasn't meant to be."

Eugenie Bouchard advanced to the third round with a convincing win over Alla Kudryavtseva.

The Canadian needed just 58 minutes to overwhelm the Russian qualifier 6-2 6-0.

Samantha Stosur, who beat the sixth seed in the final of the HP Open last year, is also safely through following a 6-3 5-7 6-1 victory over Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan but eighth seed Sorana Cirstea was dumped out following a 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7/0) defeat against Teliana Pereira.

While Czech Lucie Safarova defeated Virginie Razzano of France 2-6 6-4 6-4 to reach the second round.

In first round action, 11th seed Venus Williams overcame a second set collapse to beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3 0-6 7-5.

Other seeds to advance on day two included Daniela Hantuchova who beat Shelby Rogers 7-5 7-5 and Elena Vesnina who was a 6-2 6-1 victor over Anna Schmiedlova.

Andrea Petkovic, the 14th seed, claimed a 6-7 (7/2) 6-4 6-1 over Lesia Tsurenko and Shuai Zhang overcame Hsieh Su-wei 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/0).

There were also first round wins for Vania King, Lourdes Dominguez Lino, Marina Erakovic and Shuai Peng.

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