Shikha Uberoi gave it her best shot but it wasn't good enough against top seed Ekaterina Bychkova in the Tashkent Open in Tashkent on Wednesday.

She lost 6-3, 6-4 in a first-round match which lasted 90 minutes.

Uberoi had flown in after the doubles final at Guangzhou only on Tuesday and apart from being travel weary she said she had been sick for the past two weeks.

"I wasn't there physically and mentally today," she said. "I had an asthma attack in Guangzhou and then I had diahorrea. It was okay there because I was playing doubles and I was playing at night," she said.

Still, she played an aggressive game. "I'm a naturally aggressive player. And if I see a short ball I have to go for it. There were so many today and I wasn't making it. I felt totally drained at the end of the first set and it was tough going in the second," she said.

Bychkova, who had to wait three days for her first match of the tournament, said the waiting didn't help at all.

"She's a real serious opponent," she said of Uberoi, to whom she had lost earlier this year. "I had to take her seriously. But neither of us were at our best today. Maybe I was a bit luckier."

Third seed Antonella Serra Zanetti defeated local star Iroda Tulyaganova in the second round, just as she had done last year. Serra Zanetti won 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.

But local interest in the tournament was kept alive by wildcard Akgul Amanmuradova, who defeated Russian Galina Voskoboeva 6-4, 6-4 in her second-round match earlier in the day.

Evgeniya Rodina of Russia [Images], the tournament's second wildcard, made it a memorable day for the underdogs by defeating Melinda Czink of Hungary 7-6 (2), 6-0 in the day's last singles match.

Fifth seed Michaella Krajicek, however, booked her place in the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 over Barbara Strycova of the Czech Republic. But number eight seed Mara Santangelo of Italy [Images] was knocked out by Israel's Tzipora Obziler.

The left-handed Czink was as surprised by her result against Rodina as were the spectators. "She played well and I have no excuses," a dejected Czink said of her 16-year-old opponent. "But if I had played even 60 per cent of my game, I would have won 6-2, 6-2."

No 4 seed Laine needed just over 70 minutes to beat Anastassia Yakimova of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 while No 7 seed Maria Elena Camerin defeated US-based Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-2, 0-6, 6-1.

Gallovits hit her right ankle with her racket in the opening game of the third set and asked for the trainer. She resumed playing but lost the rhythm she had found in the second set and Camerin, who has dropped 25 places in the rankings this week, went through.

Emanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland [Images] also needed three sets to win first-round match against Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine. Gagliardi won the battle of two hard-hitting players 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2.

The day's other first-round winner was Elena Vesnina, who beat lucky loser Anastassia Rodionova 6-3, 6-3 in an all-Russian encounter.

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