Kontaveit, Bencic, Mertens progress in St Petersburg

Seeded trio Anett Kontaveit, Belinda Bencic and Elise Mertens all came through tough three-set matches to reach the second round of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy.

Kontaveit, who is seeded second behind Maria Sakkari, had the least trouble of the three as she defeated Jil Teichmann 6-3 1-6 6-3 on the opening day of the tournament.

Fifth seed Bencic came from 3-0 down in the third set to force a tiebreak and defeat Veronika Kudermetova 6-2 4-6 7-6.

Bencic dropped just 12 points on her first serve but found herself in trouble after three double faults at the start of the third set as Kudermetova took control.

However, Kudermetova's high number of unforced errors allowed Bencic back into the contest and she prevailed in the tiebreak.

No 8 seed Mertens came from a break down in the third set to beat Aliz Cornet 3-6 6-2 6-4.

Cornet, who reached last month's Australian Open quarter-finals, started strongly but was edged out in a match that lasted over two hours.

Elsewhere, home favourite Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Italy's Camila Giorgi 6-2 1-6 6-2. She awaits the winner of Tuesday's game between first seed Sakkari and Anastasia Potapova.

Fourth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova faces Jaqueline Cristian of Romania while Petra Kvitova is up against Germany's Jule Niemeier.