Erakovic beats 3rd-seeded Hsieh at Pattaya Open

Unseeded Marina Erakovic of New Zealand beat third-seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan 6-2, 6-2 Monday in the first round of the Pattaya Open. Hsieh lost to defending champion Daniela Hantuchova in last year's semifinals and was upstaged on Monday by Erakovic, who is ranked 74th in the world. Also, wild-card entrant Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand beat Annika Beck of Germany 6-3, 6-3 and Alexandra Panova of Russia defeated Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6, 3-2 when the Romanian retired in the second set. Mathilde Johansson of France defeated Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 6-4, 6-3.