seeded Elena Vesnina advanced to the second round of the Tashkent Open by beating Lesya Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-2 Monday. The 72nd-ranked Russian, who is looking for her first WTA Tour title, broke Tsurenko five times in the match. Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland also advanced, defeating local wild-card Alina Abdurakhimova 6-3, 6-1. Also, Ekaterina Ivanova of Russia beat Katie O'Brien of Britain 7-5, 6-1 and Evgeniya Rodina of Russia beat Arina Rodionova of Russia 7-6 (3), 6-3. Alexandra Dulgheru, who won her second career title in Warsaw, Poland, in May, leads the field at the $220,000 WTA Tour event. The 27th-ranked Romanian is the highest-ranked top-seeded player in the 12-year history of the event. Kleybanova wins In South Korea, fifth-seeded Alisa Kleybanova of Russia opened the Hansol Korea Open with a 6-2, 6-3 first-round win over Taiwan's Chang Kai-chen Monday. Kleybanova needed only 1 hour, 24 minutes to advance. In other first-round matches Ekaterina Makarova beat Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 and Britain's Elena Baltacha beat local hope Kim So-jung 6-3, 6,4. Pasek wins Bell Challenge Tamira Paszek of Austria won the Bell Challenge for her second WTA Tour title, beating American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 7-5 Sunday. Paszek won her first tour title at Portoroz in 2006 at age 15 and was runner up at Bali, Indonesia two years ago. Serbia to host France Serbia will host France in an all-European Davis Cup final in December after the Serbs rallied to beat the Czech Republic 3-2 Sunday. Serbia, which was trailing 2-1 after Saturday's doubles, was able to level the best-of-five series when Novak Djokovic defeated Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in Sunday's first singles match. Janko Tipsarevic then secured Serbia's first appearance in a Davis Cup final by beating Radek Stepanek 6-0, 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the deciding match. France had already qualified for the Dec. 3-5 final by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in Saturday's doubles. It completed a 5-0 rout Sunday. Elsewhere in the World Group playoffs: Austria 3, Israel 2; Germany 5, South Africa 0; Sweden 3, Italy 2; India 3, Brazil 2; Kazakhstan 5, Switzerland 0; Romania 5, Ecuador 0; and Australia 2, Belgium 1, in a match suspended due to rain.
